Faith Fox / Jane Gardam

"This comedy of manners set in early '90s Britain centers upon newborn Faith Fox, the daughter of the sweet, healthy, and hearty pearl of her Surrey village, Holly Fox, who inexplicably dies in childbirth. Faith's beanpole father can't and won't look after her. Holly's mother - a matron from Surrey's gin-and-tonic belt who is ostensibly full of good nature, good sense, and sociability - refuses to acknowledge the baby whose birth killed the daughter she loved with such a frightening obsession. And so an extraordinary group of family, friends, neighbors, and strangers converges to make sure that the rearing of Faith Fox ends up in the right hands." "Among the concerned parties are Faith's uncle, an ascetic priest who runs a commune in northern England; his unfaithful ex-hippie wife and her precocious, lonely son; the Tibetan refugees who have hunkered down with them; and the splendidly bickering and ancient paternal grandparents, Toots and Dolly." "As Faith's future unfolds amidst the shifting scenes of high society and low, variously in the company of the old and young, awardwinning novelist Jane Gardam explores the wonder of the English heart in all its thunderous eccentricity."--BOOK JACKET.