by Jane Smiley
First published 2015
Walter Langdon dies suddenly in 1953, leaving behind his Iowa farm and five adult children who must decide their futures. Only one child stays to work the land. The others head to Washington DC, California, and points between as America enters the Cold War era. The Langdon children build their own families across the decades. Twin boys become both close friends and bitter enemies. A rebellious daughter joins the Peoples Temple cult in San Francisco. A promising son abandons college to serve in Vietnam, creating a hidden legacy that will shake the family for generations. As the country moves through the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s into the wealth of the early 1980s, the scattered Langdons navigate the tensions between family loyalty and personal ambition, tradition and change.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-saga, generational-saga
Setting: California, Iowa, San Francisco, Washington DC
Period: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
476 pages · Hardcover · Knopf