num_pages: 246
description: Colorado, January 1977. Eighty-year-old Edith Goodnough lies in a hospital bed, IV taped to the back of her hand, police officer at her door. She is charged with murder. The clues: a sack of chicken feed slit with a knife, a milky-eyed dog tied outdoors one cold afternoon. The motives: the brutal business of farming and a family code of ethics as unforgiving as the winter prairie itself. In his critically acclaimed first novel, Kent Haruf delivers the sweeping tale of eighty-year-old Edith Goodnough, a woman of the American High Plains, as told by her neighbour, Sanders Roscoe. As Roscoe shares what he knows, Edith's story unfolds, a story of sacrifice and freedom. Breathtaking, and determinedly truthful, "The Tie That Binds" is a powerful tribute to the arduous demands of rural life, and to the tenacity of the human spirit.
language: English
title: The Tie That Binds
titlecomplete: The Tie That Binds
characters: Lyman Goodnough, Sanders Roscoe, John Roscoe, Roy Goodnough, Edith Goodnough
genres: Historical, Literature, Literary Fiction, Novels, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Adult Fiction, The United States Of America, Contemporary, Family
ratings_count: 8857
places: Denver, Colorado, Holt, Colorado
publisher: Picador