num_pages: 246
description: From the bestselling author of Eventide ,  The Tie That Binds  is a powerfully eloquent tribute to the arduous demands of rural America, and of the tenacity of the human spirit.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. Here, Kent Haruf delivers the sweeping tale of a woman of the American High Plains, as told by her neighbor, Sanders Roscoe. As Roscoe shares what he knows, Edith's tragedies unfold: a childhood of pre-dawn chores, a mother's death, a violence that leaves a father dependent on his children, forever enraged. Here is the story of a woman who sacrifices her happiness in the name of family--and then, in one gesture, reclaims her freedom.
language: English
title: The Tie That Binds
titlecomplete: The Tie That Binds
characters: Lyman Goodnough, Roy Goodnough, Edith Goodnough, Sanders Roscoe, John Roscoe
genres: Historical, Adult Fiction, The United States Of America, Novels, Family, Historical Fiction, Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 8855
places: Denver, Colorado, Holt, Colorado
publisher: Vintage