num_pages: 320
description: A heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver.In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl—her father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house—is pregnant, alone herself, with nowhere to go. And out in the country, two brothers, elderly bachelors, work the family homestead, the only world they've ever known.From these unsettled lives emerges a vision of life, and of the town and landscape that bind them together—their fates somehow overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station, their confusion, curiosity, dignity and humor intact and resonant. As the milieu widens to embrace fully four generations, Kent Haruf displays an emotional and aesthetic authority to rival the past masters of a classic American tradition.Utterly true to the rhythms and patterns of life, Plainsong is a novel to care about, believe in, and learn from.
language: English
title: Plainsong
titlecomplete: Plainsong (Plainsong, #1)
genres: Fiction, Family, American, Book Club, Literature, Adult, Novels, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction
ratings_count: 72305
places: Denver, Colorado, Holt, Colorado, Colorado
series: Plainsong
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Book Sense Book of the Year Award
category: Adult, awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: ALA Alex Award, awardedAt: 915177600000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Society of Midland Authors Award
category: Adult Fiction, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: Picador