‘The Lawnmower Lady’ is a BookLife Editor’s Pick!

BookLife selected The Lawnmower Lady as an Editor’s Pick, calling it “poignant without being saccharine and funny without ever losing heart.” Congratulations, Edith Forbes!

The Lawnmower Lady, coming in March 2026, features Fay Kirkwood, a grumpy offshoot of an old Boston family, who lived most of her life on a north country farm, raising pigs and fixing lawnmowers. Alive, Fay was homely, independent, and capable. Dead, she is sharp-tongued with an audience of one—the reader. As news of her death and the unorthodox disposal of her body by her outcast niece spreads through their small New England town of Gilham, Fay is launched into a pinball succession of interconnected events. Much to her dismay, she cannot escape witnessing the consequences, which come thick and fast.

The reviewer praises Forbes’s vibrant novel. “With verve and suspense, Forbes brings the world of Gilham to life, laying bare its inhabitants’ hopes and fears while drolly satirizing religion, politics, and activism along the way. Fay as narrator is delightful company, a keen observer of human nature yanked between the story’s present setting of 1999 and flashbacks by some unknown force, cheering on the living’s successes and groaning at their misfortunes right alongside the reader.”

Read the full review here.