Nashville

Mary is brought to Nashville at the end of the book, the place where she was born. She is asked to house sit for a summer, and it is here that Mary rediscovers herself by spending time alone. Her retreat to Nashville was a much needed escape from her "obligations and responsibilities" (200). While welcoming aloneness, Mary also discovered Parnassus Books, where she felt at home with the books and the people who worked there. Eventually, when she was back in Atlanta, the store offered her a part-time job which eventually led the family to make the big move to Nashville.

Nashville is the place in which Mary experiences her change in perspective that allows her to transform her life and accept the different parts of herself. She describes being able to remember "the person I was before I was a speck on a highway clogged with other specks...