Cliff was moving out. He said, Would you like a tortoise. ??
I would not say no to a tortoise, I said.
I was alone in Portland and the trees were giant. I picked her up and she blinked at me with her upside-down eyelids. I felt instantly calm. Her eyes were soft brown. Her skin felt like an old elbow. I will build you a castle, I whispered. With a pool.

Audrey Flowers, our intellectually-challenged narrator, lives quietly with her tortoise Winnifred. When her father is killed in a bizarre accident involving a Christmas tree, Audrey returns to her old home and her beloved, grief-stricken uncle, to grapple with the unsolvable puzzle of her father’s death. Before long, Audrey is caught up in a life-changing mystery. Her investigations will take her on an extraordinary journey as she seeks to unravel the secrets at the heart of her family.

Co-narrated by a 300-year-old tortoise and starring a mouse who, by all appearances, is himself immortal, Come, Thou Tortoise unfolds in a world that is almost, but not quite, our own. Touching, funny and thoroughly delightful, this is a book that will warm the cockles of your heart.