Name: Can't Wait to Get to Heaven: A Novel
ISBN: 9781400061266

Synopsis

Combining southern warmth with unabashed emotion and side-splitting hilarity, Fannie Flagg takes readers back to Elmwood Springs, Missouri, where the most unlikely and surprising experiences of a high-spirited octogenarian inspire a town to ponder the age-old question: Why are we here?

Life is the strangest thing. One minute, Mrs. Elner Shimfissle is up in her tree, picking figs, and the next thing she knows, she is off on an adventure she never dreamed of, running into people she never in a million years expected to meet. Meanwhile, back home, Elner’s nervous, high-strung niece Norma faints and winds up in bed with a cold rag on her head; Elner’s neighbor Verbena rushes immediately to the Bible; her truck driver friend, Luther Griggs, runs his eighteen-wheeler into a ditch–and the entire town is thrown for a loop and left wondering, “What is life all about, anyway?” Except for Tot Whooten, who owns Tot’s Tell It Like It Is Beauty Shop. Her main concern is that the end of the world might come before she can collect her social security.

In this comedy-mystery, those near and dear to Elner discover something wonderful: Heaven is actually right here, right now, with people you love, neighbors you help, friendships you keep. Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven is proof once more that Fannie Flagg “was put on this earth to write” (Southern Living), spinning tales as sweet and refreshing as iced tea on a summer day, with a little extra kick thrown in.

Recommendations

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

by Fannie Flagg

Wait—I know what you're thinking! But hear me out: if you haven't read Flagg's debut, this is where her magic truly crystallized. It has that same interwoven small-town tapestry and the way she finds profound meaning in ordinary lives, but with a mystery that unfolds across decades. The Whistle Stop feels like Elmwood Springs' spiritual cousin, and you'll recognize Flagg's gift for making you care deeply about people you'd pass on the street.

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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

by Helen Simonson

Simonson captures that same gentle humor about aging and finding unexpected joy in life's second acts, but transplants it to a English village where a retired major and a Pakistani widow become unlikely friends. There's the same warmth toward small-town eccentrics, the same belief that human connection matters more than convention, and a protagonist who—like Elner—refuses to be diminished by what others expect.

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society By Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

by Author

This one shares Flagg's belief that ordinary people contain extraordinary stories, but it's told through letters between a writer and an island community recovering from WWII. Like Elner's journey, it's fundamentally about how connection and shared history heal us—and it has that same cozy, ensemble-cast warmth where you become invested in a whole town's worth of characters. The humor is quieter but just as genuine.

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The House of the Spirits

by Isabel Allende

Here's your surprise pick: Allende's multigenerational saga spans decades and continents with magical realism woven throughout, but at its heart it's about the same thing Flagg explores—how ordinary people's lives ripple through time and touch everyone around them. Where Flagg finds heaven in the present moment with loved ones, Allende finds it in memory and legacy. It's bigger in scope than *Can't Wait*, but it shares that profound tenderness toward human resilience.

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