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With crystalline prose that evokes with equal power the sweat of hard work and the complexity of human foibles, Kent Nelson's novel is destined to earn him many new fans. When Haney Remmel dies in an accident, he leaves to his wife Mattie an alfalfa farm in the plains of South Dakota and a devastating secret. Mattie must wrestle with both, deciding to keep the farm running even as she deals with the discovery that her husband's life had been a lie. She enlists the help of two women who are just as embattled: daughter Shelley, an insecure college student, and Dawn, a handywoman with a past that's closing in on her. A young runaway Native American boy joins them, and together they forge an unlikely family, relying on each other to cope with a western landscape that is as cruel as it is profoundly beautiful, and a violent threat born of revenge that will challenge the bonds they have made. Author Biography: Kent Nelson's books include the novel Language in the Blood and the story collections Toward the Sun and The Middle of Nowhere. He has worked as a tennis pro, city judge, ranch hand, and university professor. Show More