The village of Mitford is soothing tonic for a readership that feels starved for community and yearns for clear morals. The recently married Father Tim and his plain-folk neighbors live the best of Christianity in everyday life. Even the rampant gossip in Mitford is the good kind: folks worrying about other folks and everyone minding one another's business out of concern rather than malice. As a result, no one faces a crisis alone. Often the crises are cause for a belly laugh, such as the rectory's new computer system that seems programmed to torment. But just as often the crises have the bite of real-life problems, such as the bloody young girl in shredded clothes, whom Father Tim finds after she was beaten by her drunken father, and the soul-wrenching despair Father Tim feels when he loses a surrogate mother. The heavily quoted scripture gives a day-to-day context for biblical teachings as well as spiritual solace during the sadder days at Mitford. --Gail Hudson



For years, Mitford's sixtysomething rector has been happily married to his parish. Now, he's also married to Cynthia, his vivacious next-door neighbor. For Father Tim, life in Mitford has never been so full of surprises. His wife is "aging" his already ancient kitchen walls, not to mention burning his draperies. The mountain boy he's learned to love as his own makes a heartrending decision. And the agony of mastering the church computer system is as boggling as the pandemonium that breaks loose when his quiet rectory becomes a nursery. All this, however, is small potatoes compared to what happens on a wilderness camping trip that sends him home a changed man.

In These High, Green Hills, Jan Karon takes her readers on a heartwarming—and hilarious—visit to Mitford, where her lovable characters always inspire laughter, tears, and fresh hope.

For more about the heartwarming town of Mitford, read At Home in Mitford and A Light in the Window, available at your local bookstore.


Jan Karon left a successful, award-winning career in advertising to write about characters drawn from her North Carolina childhood. She lives in a 1920's cottage with Bennie, an orange cat the size of a mobile home, and a dog named Rosie Potter.