“A vastly entertaining story of a
reluctant saint, her indelible nonna, and their family’s long history of
love, trickery, and transcendence. I can’t imagine any reader not
enjoying Manilla’s sparkling tale, or the girl who tells it.”

“Manilla’s second novel is clever, funny, heartbreaking, and
heartwarming, all at once…A lovely, hopeful tale.”

“Manilla, whose first novel, Shrapnel,
won the Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel, has created a complex,
endearing character, whose story will absorb readers from beginning to
end. Beautifully written, filled with detailed prose meant to be
savored, Manilla’s latest is a captivating reminder of the blurred line
between myth and reality.”

“With The Patron Saint of Ugly, Marie Manilla
has written more than a novel: she’s written what we used to call a tale. It’s
all here, folks, the whole world. How does Manilla write about God and history
and love and loss and make it all so miraculously readable? How does she make
this book so much fun, even as it breaks your heart? Beats me, but she did it.
Plus which, anyone who can mention Buddy Holly and Pius XII in the same
sentence is my hero.”

“Patron Saint of Ugly
is as steeped in magic as one of Nonna’s spells—it will make you laugh, fill
you with wonder, and break your heart all at once. Garnet, the unwilling saint
of ugly, performs miracles among a delightful cast of Italian witches, Southern
families, and the deformed and injured who come in search of healing. But
surviving her distressed family, and repairing her own broken soul, may be the
biggest miracle of all. Richly conceived and energetic, this is a tale of love,
rejection, and the hazy lines between reality and myth.”