All This Belongs to Me Book

An often hilarious, always moving novel that explores love and fate and the ways we lie to ourselves to get by in a sometimes overwhelming world.

When a mishap in the mail brings Geena into Ellis’s life, neither realizes how much they need each other. With her marriage in tatters, Geena is still recovering from the sudden loss of her son. Ellis has been alone in the world since the death of his mother, and as he approaches his twilight years, the routine of everyday life has replaced the relationships he might once have known. When that routine is thrown into disarray by changes at the Thomas Edison estate, where Ellis works as a tour guide, he is lost until Geena brings courage and independence back into his life. For Geena, caring for Ellis is the salve on her own wounds.

In a fascinating tale of fate and second chances, Ad Hudler weaves an intricate web showing the importance of friendship, family, and the need to accept one another, flaws and all.

Publishers Weekly

In this comedy predicated on off-camera tragedy, Geena Pangborn's upper crust in-laws blame Geena for her son's death-and uptight husband Barry isn't backing her. She takes off from Colorado, and, just as her money is running out, an incident with a mail truck leaves her in possession of the credit card belonging to one Ellis Norton of Fort Myers, Fla., whose name is conveniently not gender marked. Using the card to fund the trip, Geena tracks down Ellis, ostensibly to stay on the road, and then pay him or her back. Ellis turns out to be a 60-something savantlike Thomas Edison fanatic and lifelong bachelor. A resourceful, fast-talking fibber, Geena poses as a reporter wanting to do a feature on Fort Myers, and slowly and amusingly worms her way into Ellis's life, such as it is, while taking stock of her own. Meanwhile, Ellis is fixated on the inner lives of Edison and his wife, Mina, which allows further meditations on marriage and loss. Hudler, a Fort Myers resident, has written two other lite novels, Househusband and Southern Living. His ability to balance romantic and comedic scenes, and his intriguing presentation of the biographical material about Edison, smooth over most of the rough edges. The whimsical plot frequently strains credulity, though, and the surprise ending lands heavily indeed. (On sale Jan. 31) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.