The Watermelon King

"The Watermelon King brings readers to Ashland, Alabama - immortalized in Big Fish - a fictional town whose reputation is based on its long-ago abundance of watermelons.". "Thomas Rider knows almost nothing about his parents, only that his mother died the day he was born in Ashland. He travels there and interviews the townspeople, learning of the town's bizarre past. Most important, he learns about the Watermelon Festival, which at one time occurred annually and would symbolically ensure the continued fertility of the crop that sustained the townspeople - and how his mother came to destroy the festival. Piecing together his own identity as well as that of the town, Thomas finds himself immersed in a series of events that turns everything he knows upside down."--BOOK JACKET.