title: The Annie Year: A Novel
author: Stephanie Wilbur Ash
description: <div><BR>"Stephanie Wilbur Ash's new novel <i>The Annie Year</i> is a fierce hymn to small Midwestern towns, and the women who live there." Euan Kerr, Minnesota Public Radio <BR><BR> "This is a keeper, a fresh and quirky 'Main Street' for the Midwest... Stephanie Ash writes with a wry smile and an obvious adoration of Iowa small-town life. Its faux-preachy tone keeps us &#151; snooty types from the big cities along the river &#151; at arm's length while Ash's character embraces her imperfect corner of the world. It's a bold first novel by Ash." &#151;<I>The Star Tribune</I><BR><BR>"Ash&#8217;s debut novel brilliantly captures the slanted quirkiness of a Midwest full of small-business owners and exploding home-methamphetamine labs... Darkly hilarious and weirdly beguiling." &#151;<I>Kirkus Reviews</I><BR><BR>"A lonely accountant waffles between pessimism and hope in this quirky debut... Tandy&#8217;s voice is intriguingly and deceptively complex, leading readers to glimpse the longing beneath her professional veneer." &#151;<I>Publishers Weekly</I><BR><BR>"Stephanie Ash's <I>The Annie Year</I> is an incredible debut&#151; hilarious and insightful and energetic. Ash sassily mines the dark humor of Midwestern life with utter confidence and creates buoyant and indelible characters who will stick in your heart and mind forever and ever." &#151;John Jodzio, Author of <I>Knockout</I><BR><BR>"<I>The people in this town will try to tell you that</I>... So <I>The Annie Year</I> begins with its small-town Greek chorus. Meanwhile, Tandy Caide, sardonic CPA and pathological people-pleaser, enters the year of her reckoning, the year she starts making her own moral ledger. Like the mythological Annie&#151; you know, the one who sings 'It&#8217;s a Hard Knock Life' but also 'Tomorrow'&#151; Tandy has spunky charm and believable innocence. I read this mordantly funny book in one sitting, it's a fine novel with a main character you&#8217;ll miss once you&#8217;ve finished." &#151;Debra Monroe, author of <I>My Unsentimental Education</I><BR><BR>"Stephanie Ash's completely original comic novel is a caustic, gimlet-eyed, cry from the heart for small town America and a very funny look at big desires in a small place." &#151;Mark Haskell Smith, author of <I>Raw: A Love Story</I><BR></div>
zlib_text: THE BEAUTIFUL YEARS
  PART V
  
  ANNIE ROSE WELCH
  
  CONTENTS
  …
  Preface
  Part I
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3
  Chapter 4
  Chapter 5
  Chapter 6
  Chapter 7
  Chapter 8
  Chapter 9
  Chapter 10
  Part II
  Chapter 11
  Chapter 12
  Chapter 13
  Chapter 14
  Chapter 15
  Part III
  Chapter 16
  Chapter 17
  Chapter 18
  Chapter 19
  Chapter 20
  Chapter 21
  Chapter 22
  Chapter 23
  Chapter 24
  Part IV
  Chapter 25
  Chapter 26
  Chapter 27
  Chapter 28
  Chapter 29
  Chapter 30
  Chapter 31
  Chapter 32
  Also by Annie Rose Welch
  About the Author
  
  THE B EAUTIFUL YEARS
  PART V
  COPYRIGHT @2019 ANNIE ROSE WELCH
  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed,
  or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
  This book is a work of fiction.
  Names of characters, places, and events are the construction of the author, except those locations that are well-known and of general
  knowledge,