First published 2007
Nancy Culpepper trades chicken feeding and Hank Williams for wine pairings and Yankee customs when she heads north to school and marries Jack. But her Kentucky roots follow her everywhere. She searches the family farm for photos of an ancestor who shared her name, seeking clues about where she belongs. Her marriage to Jack strains under cultural differences that started on day one. Nancy raises her sharp-witted son while navigating the sixties, Vietnam, and the eighties. When John Lennon dies, the world feels darker. She travels widely, always looking for answers. After inheriting the Culpepper farm, Nancy pieces together more family history and sees her life taking shape. On a remote English mountain, she gains unexpected clarity about her place in the world. These stories span decades of one woman's journey between two very different worlds.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: England, Kentucky, United States, Vietnam
Period: 1960s, 1980s
256 pages · Paperback · Random House Publishing Group