A luminous literary feat, this short novel offers a profound and graceful snapshot of twentieth-century Midwest America. It is the life story of Zorrie Underwood, an orphan in rural Indiana who drifts west to find work in the Depression, then returns home, marries a farmer, communes with neighbors, and works the land. There are no shocking plot twists here…just a poetic portrait of a resilient woman whom I fell in love with as if she were my own grandmother. (CH)