LYNCHBURG — The Moore County Brown Bag Book Club recently announced they’ll be reading The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness for their August pick.

It’s the retelling of a Japanese folktale. In Ness’s retelling, he imagines how the life of a broken-hearted man might be transformed when he rescues an injured white crane that mysteriously lands in his backyard.

“One night, groggy American expat George finds himself tending to an injured crane that bizarrely appears in his London backyard. The next morning, Kumiko — a quiet, independent woman — soars into George’s life. She vaguely reminds him of the crane and leaves him wondering whether he was dreaming. As if in a storybook, Kumiko brings opportunity, human interaction and love to the lonely man but remains an enigma. George’s yearning to know more about her threatens their relationship and endangers their lives,” their synopsis reads.

Ness is a southern-born author who grew up in Hawaii and now lives in London. He has won the Carnegie Medal twice, The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award.

The Brown Bag Book Club meets every Friday at the Moore County Public Library. The group usually ends and begins a new book on the last Friday of each month. However, they will finish this novel early on Friday, August 14 so that they can move on to “the perfect suspense, mystery book,” according to their social media post. We’ll post that pick as soon as they release it. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only independently owned and operated newspaper in Moore County … covering Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, the Lynchburg Music Fest, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}