Perhaps her best-known novel, "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" was published in 1987 and remained on "The New York Times" bestseller list for 36 weeks. It was praised by both Harper Lee and Eudora Welty. The novel is told in both past and present tense by the characters Ninny Threadgoode (past) and Evelyn Couch (present) and focuses on the town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, circa the 1920s and 1930s. It is about the unlikely bonds forged between women who seemingly have nothing in common except restlessness. Flagg subsequently co-wrote the screenplay based on that book, which became the 1991 film "Fried Green Tomatoes". The movie garnered her a nomination for an Academy Award. "Fried Green Tomatoes" starred Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cicely Tyson.