About this item
The critically acclaimed author of The Home Place explores the heart and mystery of Big Sky Country in this evocative and atmospheric novel of family, home, love, and responsibility inspired by William Shakespeare's Hamlet.The only son of a cattle rancher, Anthony Fry chafed against the expectation that he would take over the business that had belonged to his family for generations. While his ancestors planted deep roots in the unforgiving Montana soil, Anthony wanted nothing more than to leave Billings for the excitement, sophistication, and culture of city life. After college he fled to New York, hoping to turn his lifelong love of the theater into a career.But New York wasn't the dream Anthony thought it would be. Now, with the unexpected death of his father, Anthony suddenly finds himself back in the place he swore he'd left behind. While the years have transformed the artistic dreamer, they've also changed Billings. His uncle Neal, always the black sheep of the Fry family, has become alarmingly close with Anthony's mother, and a predatory mining company covets the Fry land.Anthony has always wanted out of Montana, away from his father's suffocating expectations. Yet now that he may be freed from the burden of family legacy, he's forced to ask himself what he truly finds important . . . answers that will ultimately decide his fate.In this unforgettable novel, Carrie La Seur once again captures the breathtaking beauty of the West and its people as she explores the power of family and the meaning of legacy - the burdens we inherit and those we place upon ourselves.
About the Author
Carrie La Seur is a seventh generation descendant of homesteaders who came to Montana in 1864 and settled in what is now called the Gallatin Valley, near the headwaters of the Missouri River. "My frontier heritage has always been a taproot and a source of resolve. If they could do it, so can I."
After graduating from Bryn Mawr College, Carrie was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and earned a doctorate in modern languages from Oxford University. "After Oxford, I tried academia for a while and did a summer course at the Iowa Writers Workshop. The literary and academic worlds did not fall at my feet, so I packed up and headed to Yale Law School. The law was a way to get back to Montana and do work I care about. In the process, I gained a perspective and a voice that made my writing stronger and more relevant."
In 2006, she founded the legal nonprofit Plains Justice, which provides public interest energy and environmental legal services in the northern plains states. Carrie and Plains Justice have played a key role in halting several new coal plants, enacting clean energy reforms, and launching the Keystone XL pipeline campaign.
Carrie currently practices law on behalf of farmers, ranchers, and Native Americans, and does a little writing, from an office in Billings, Montana. A licensed private pilot, she hikes, skis, and fishes the Montana wilderness with her family in her spare time. Her work has appeared in such diverse media as Grist, Harvard Law and Policy Review, The Huffington Post, Mother Jones, and Salon.
Author photo by Dewey Vanderhoff taken at Trail Town, Cody, WY
