Fourteen-year-old Abby seeks both her father and the secret of a handsome but mysterious boy during an arduous journey by wagon train from the middle of the country to the Pacific coast in 1850.
Originally published in 1997 by Houghton Mifflin, this is a collection of true stories, essays and poems which tell of the glories and rigours of living close to the land.
Winner of the Staunch Book Prize. “A beautifully written and expertly structured medieval mystery packed with intrigue, drama and shock revelations.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune An extraordinary new novel by Samantha Harvey—whose books have been nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), and the Guardian First Book Award—The Western Wind is a riveting story of faith, guilt, and the freedom of confession. It’s 1491. In the small village of Oakham, its wealthiest and most industrious resident, Tom Newman, is swept away by the river during the early hours of Shrove Saturday. Was it murder, suicide, or an accident? Narrated from the perspective of local priest John Reve—patient shepherd to his wayward flock—a shadowy portrait of the community comes to light through its residents’ tortured revelations. As some of their darkest secrets are revealed, the intrigue of the unexplained death ripples through the congregation. But will Reve, a man with secrets of his own, discover what happened to Newman? And what will happen if he can’t? Written with timeless eloquence, steeped in the spiritual traditions of the Middle Ages, and brimming with propulsive suspense, The Western Wind finds Samantha Harvey at the pinnacle of her outstanding novelistic power. “Beautifully rendered, deeply affecting, thoroughly thoughtful and surprisingly prescient . . . a story of a community crowded with shadows and secrets.” —The New York Times Book Review “Ms. Harvey has summoned this remote world with writing of the highest quality, conjuring its pungencies and peculiarities.” —The Wall Street Journal “Brings medieval England back to life.” —The Washington Post
The grassroots publishing sensation that began with "Leaning Into the Wind" continues in this second volume of women's writing from the heart of the American West.
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Winner of the Mountains and Plains Book Seller's Association Award "Sprawling in scope. . . . Mr. Egan uses the past powerfully to explain and give dimension to the present." --The New York Times "Fine reportage . . . honed and polished until it reads more like literature than journalism." --Los Angeles Times "They have tried to tame it, shave it, fence it, cut it, dam it, drain it, nuke it, poison it, pave it, and subdivide it," writes Timothy Egan of the West; still, "this region's hold on the American character has never seemed stronger." In this colorful and revealing journey through the eleven states west of the 100th meridian, Egan, a third-generation westerner, evokes a lovely and troubled country where land is religion and the holy war between preservers and possessors never ends. Egan leads us on an unconventional, freewheeling tour: from America's oldest continuously inhabited community, the Ancoma Pueblo in New Mexico, to the high kitsch of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge has been painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone; from the fragile beauty of Idaho's Bitterroot Range to the gross excess of Las Vegas, a city built as though in defiance of its arid environment. In a unique blend of travel writing, historical reflection, and passionate polemic, Egan has produced a moving study of the West: how it became what it is, and where it is going. "The writing is simply wonderful. From the opening paragraph, Egan seduces the reader. . . . Entertaining, thought provoking." --The Arizona Daily Star Weekly "A western breeziness and love of open spaces shines through Lasso the Wind. . . . The writing is simple and evocative." --The Economist
Fourteen-year-old Abigail Parker, traveling west in 1850, has a touch of "gold fever". A spirited rebel, Abby dreams of buying her own land and hopes to find her father, missing in California. Caught up in the danger and adventure of the journey, Abby befriends Matthew Reed, a mysterious young man who travels with a secret of his own. In the end, these two young people brave the wilderness alone in their struggle to save their loved ones from starvation. Honors for West Against the Wind include the Jefferson Cup Award Honor Book, Dorothy Canfield List and Iowa Teen Award list. For ages 10 and up.
In this exquisitely rendered memoir set on the high plains of Texas, Pulitzer Prize winner Gail Caldwell transforms into art what it is like to come of age in a particular time and place. A Strong West Wind begins in the 1950s in the wilds of the Texas Panhandle–a place of both boredom and beauty, its flat horizons broken only by oil derricks, grain elevators, and church steeples. Its story belongs to a girl who grew up surrounded by dust storms and cattle ranches and summer lightning, who took refuge from the vastness of the land and the ever-present wind by retreating into books. What she found there, from renegade women to men who lit out for the territory, turned out to offer a blueprint for her own future. Caldwell would grow up to become a writer, but first she would have to fall in love with a man who was every mother’s nightmare, live through the anguish and fire of the Vietnam years, and defy the father she adored, who had served as a master sergeant in the Second World War. A Strong West Wind is a memoir of culture and history–of fathers and daughters, of two world wars and the passionate rebellions of the sixties. But it is also about the mythology of place and the evolution of a sensibility: about how literature can shape and even anticipate a life. Caldwell possesses the extraordinary ability to illuminate the desires, stories, and lives of ordinary people. Written with humanity, urgency, and beautiful restraint, A Strong West Wind is a magical and unforgettable book, destined to become an American classic.
DIV“A rip-snorting, full-throttle novel . . . It kept me up late into the night.” —Stephen King/divDIV /divDIVForced out of his firm, a hard-living attorney takes on one final, highly charged case—defending a notorious gang of bikers against murder charges /divDIV A few years ago, Will Alexander was the top criminal lawyer in Santa Fe, with a thriving practice, a famously flamboyant courtroom style, and a marriage that landed him on the front page of the society section. Now, though, his wife has left him, and his constant boozing and womanizing have put his career in jeopardy. When Will’s partners ask him—forcefully—to take a leave of absence from the firm, his life in law seems finished. He has only one client: a gang of men who call themselves the Scorpions./divDIV /divDIVFour rogue bikers are accused of committing a gruesome murder, and Will is the only one they want for their defense. Although all the evidence points toward their guilt, Will believes them, and it’s time for these outlaws to stick together./div
In this dramatic debut novel about relationships, six individuals’ complicated lives are intertwined after a chance reunion. A successful environmental lawyer is forced to take himself to task when he realizes that everything about his work has betrayed his core beliefs. A high school English teacher asks her former high school love to take up her environmental cause. A transgender adolescent male raised by his grandparents struggles to excel in a world hostile to his kind. A French-Canadian political science professor finds himself left with a choice between his cherished separatist cause and his marriage and family. An accomplished engineer is chronically unable to impress his more accomplished father sufficiently to be named head of the international wind technology company his father founded. The Quebec separatist party’s Minister of Natural Resources, a divorcée, finds herself caught between her French-Canadian lover and an unexpected English-Canadian suitor. Praise for Against the Wind “An intricate and elegantly compelling novel, notable for both its political and personal acuity. Jim Tilley writes with deep feeling for his characters and great command of his fascinating materials.”—Peter Ho Davies, author of The Fortunes “The writing is brilliant and economical, especially about the environment, and there’s all sorts of information here for the taking, but essentially this is a novel of character. And a very good one.” —Library Journal “Tilley handles decades-long character arcs with empathy, resulting in a resonant and humanistic novel.” —Kirkus Reviews
Forty years ago, a teenaged boy stepped off a cotton farm in Alabama and into the epicenter of the struggle for civil rights in America, where he has remained to this day, committed still to the nonviolent ideals of his mentor Martin Luther King and the movement they both served. of photos.