This life-affirming novel explores marriage, community, and the power of dignity for a fifty-seven-year-old woman forced to rebuild her life, unexpectedly and alone, in 1960s Texas-perfect for readers of Elizabeth Strout, Bonnie Garmus, and Anne Tyler. It´s 1964 and Eliza Kratke is mostly content. Married thirty years, she is long settled in Bayard, Texas with two grown children, a nice house, a little dog, and a routine. But her husband has a secret, and Eliza has not been brave enough to demand to know what it is. So when her husband dies suddenly, the ground doesn´t just shift under Eliza´s feet-it falls away entirely, revealing that she has known nothing true about her life. How should she come to terms with all that has been a lie? What emerges from this wreckage is a profoundly compelling portrait of a wonderfully nuanced woman, worn down like a gemstone to a core of durability and self-reliance as she fights for her own path forward. By taking business classes and moving into a hotel filled with aspiring young people, The Sweet Vidalia, Eliza gathers new friends and new possibilities. But with each of these, she finds that it isn´t so simple to leave the past behind. Sweet Vidalia not only explores what it means to be honest with ourselves and with one another, but asks: what will we do with the truth when we find it?