Lake Blackshear Regional Library.

If you’ve ever picked up a Fannie Flagg* novel – like Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café – chances are you were drawn in by her warmth and witty storytelling. But did you know that several of her books are deeply connected? They all revolve around the fictional town of Elmwood Springs, Missouri. Books like Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!, Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, Standing in the Rainbow, and The Whole Town’s Talking are part of one big, interconnected story. Each novel stands on its own but they all fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

Let’s start with The Whole Town’s Talking (2016). While it was written last, it acts as the origin story of Elmwood Springs. It goes back to the town’s founding in the late 1800s. From there, the book takes the reader through generations of townsfolk, showing how this small place grows and changes. It’s funny, touching, and full of warmth.

Standing in the Rainbow (2002), is set mostly in the 1940s through the 1960s. You’ll meet some of Elmwood Springs’ most memorable characters — like Dorothy Smith, who runs a home radio show that reaches people all over the Midwest — and her family. There’s her husband, Doc, their son Bobby, and others who become part of the town’s fabric. It’s a time of big change and life in small towns like Elmwood Springs is shifting. But through it all, the town remains full of heart. Many characters from this book pop up in the others, making it feel like you’re visiting old friends when you see them again.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! (1988) was written first, though its setting is the most modern. In a lot of ways, it is the most difficult emotionally, but it is worth the angst! Dena Nordstrom is a TV journalist who seems to have it all, until she doesn’t. Dena’s struggling with anxiety, health problems, and knowing that something from her past just doesn’t add up. Eventually, she uncovers that she has roots in Elmwood Springs and she looks to the town to help solve the mystery of her past. Fannie Flagg really shows how you can never really escape the place that made you; even if you don’t really remember it.

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven (2006), is a delightfully odd yet heartwarming story about Elner Shimfissle, an elderly woman who takes a tumble out of a fig tree and ends up having a full-blown near-death experience. Elner is one of those characters who seems simple on the surface, but she ends up touching everyone around her in deep ways. She’s also a familiar face if you read Standing in the Rainbow, where she appears as a steady, if slightly eccentric, presence. Elner’s short trip to heaven gives Flagg a chance to explore some big questions — like what really matters in life — and she does it with her trademark humor and heart.

What makes all of these books so deeply and emotionally satisfying when read together is how Flagg builds this universe where time passes, people grow up and grow old, and stories keep layering over one another. You’ll spot the same families, like the Nordstroms, across generations. You’ll see how traditions carry on, how townspeople gossip, mourn, laugh, live, and love. Even though the books don’t follow one straight storyline, they’re all part of the same emotional and geographic landscape.

Reading these books is kind of like walking into a big family reunion; maybe you don’t know everyone right away, but pretty soon you’re swapping stories and feeling like you belong. The interconnectedness of these novels gives you the sense that life, even in a small town, is full of ripples; one person’s actions affect others, and stories keep echoing through time.

In the end, what ties all these novels together is Fannie Flagg’s love for community, her understanding of human nature, and her ability to find humor and meaning in everyday life. Elmwood Springs may be fictional, but by the time you’ve read these books, it feels as real as any place you’ve ever known and you will feel like you know the people who inhabit her book and maybe even recognize parts of them in the people you know. Maybe that’s the whole point: even the smallest towns — like Americus — and the quietest lives are full of stories worth telling.

*Fannie Flagg is coming out with a new book, Something to Look Forward to: Fictions in August of this year.