First published 1981
Cora Atkins arrives on the Nebraska plains as a young bride in the early 1900s, facing the harsh realities of farming life far from everything she has known. The land demands everything from her, shaping not only her own destiny but that of her daughters and granddaughters who follow. Each generation of Atkins women confronts the same unforgiving landscape yet finds different ways to survive and thrive. As decades pass from the turn of the century through the 1970s, mothers and daughters clash over tradition and change, duty and desire. The youngest generation questions the choices their mothers made, wondering if the sacrifices were worth the cost. Through seasons of drought and plenty, birth and death, the women discover that the plains have marked them as deeply as they have marked the land.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: family-saga, multigenerational, women-s-fiction
Setting: Nebraska
Period: Early 1900s, 1970s
229 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books