Author(s): Haven Kimmel

Fiction.

Narrated with warmth and intelligence, 'The Used World' is the third novel from the bestselling author of 'The Solace of Leaving Early' and explores the interconnected lives of three women who work in an antiques emporium in Indiana Hazel Hunnicutt is the proprietor of The Used World Emporium, a cavernous antiques store filled with the cast-offs of countless lives in the town of Jonah, Indiana. Knowing, witty and often infuriatingly stubborn, Hazel has lived in the town her whole life, daughter of the local doctor, and is keeper of many of its secrets. Working with her in the store are Claudia, a solitary soul since the death of her beloved parents and, at over 6 feet, an oddity to all who see her; and Rebekah, a young woman forced to leave the suffocating Christian sect she was born into, but adrift in the outside world. It is shortly before Christmas and the lives of these three women are about to change irrevocably: for Claudia, who has hidden away from life since the death of her mother, a new arrival -- which comes to her in the most unexpected of ways -- will give her a second chance at happiness and a family to replace the one she has lost. First published 2007.