Book excerpt: It all starts with the release of fidgety, suspicious Percy Talbott from state prison after serving a five-year sentence. We don't know why, only that she's released and on her way to Gilead and its "colors of paradise." But when she arrives it is February and bitter cold, and the only one around to meet her is restless Sheriff Joe Turner, who takes her to the Spitfire Grill to help the aging Hannah Ferguson run the diner. All is gray, dismal and listless around them, and the characters are in the "winter of their lives" emotionally and spiritually.