Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons

A family without men, the Birches live gloriously offbeatlives in the lush, green backwoods of North Carolina.In a sad and singular era, they are unique among womenof their time. For radiant, headstrong Sophia and her shy andbrilliant daughter Margaret possess powerful charmsto ward off loneliness, despair, and the human misery that alltoo often beats a path to their door. And they are protectedthrough the years by the eccentric wisdom and muscular loveof the most stalwart Birch of all -- a solid, unbending anduncompromising self-taught healer who can cure everythingfrom boils to broken hones to broken hearts ... a remarkablematriarch who calls herself Charlie Kate.
Charms for the Easy Life is the passionate, luminous, andexhilarating New York Times bestseller by Kaye Gibbons,the acclaimed author of Ellen Foster and Sights Unseen.