Benediction $100.00
New York, NY: Knopf (2013)
Fine in dust jacket.
When Dad Lewis is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he and his wife, Mary, must work together to make his final days as comfortable as possible. Their daughter, Lorraine, hastens back from Denver to help look after him; her devotion softens the bitter absence of their estranged son, Frank, but this cannot be willed away and remains a palpable presence for all three of them. Next door, a young girl named Alice moves in with her grandmother and contends with the painful memories that Dad’s condition stirs up of her own mother’s death. Meanwhile, the town’s newly arrived preacher attempts to mend his strained relationships with his wife and teenaged son, a task that proves all the more challenging when he faces the disdain of his congregation after offering more than they are accustomed to getting on a Sunday morning. And throughout, an elderly widow and her middle-aged daughter do everything they can to ease the pain of their friends and neighbors.
Despite the travails that each of these families faces, together they form bonds strong enough to carry them through the most difficult of times. Bracing, sad and deeply illuminating,Benediction captures the fullness of life by representing every stage of it, including its extinction, as well as the hopes and dreams that sustain us along the way. Here Kent Haruf gives us his most indelible portrait yet of this small town and reveals, with grace and insight, the compassion, the suffering and, above all, the humanity of its inhabitants.
Where You Once Belonged $275.00
New York, NY: Summit (1990)
Very good in dust jacket.
Former high-school football hero Jack Burdette returns to his hometown eight years after he had left, but his onetime pranks and high-spirited high jinks have turned into crimes–with terrifying consequences for the people of Holt County.
The Tie That Binds $300.00
New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1990)
Near fine in dust jacket.
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 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. Breathtaking, determinedly truthful, The Tie That Binds is a powerfully eloquent tribute to the arduous demands of rural America, and of the tenacity of the human spirit.
The Tie That Binds $1,000.00
New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (1990)
Very good in decorated wrappers. This copy shows some wear and a crease to the front wrapper.
Our Souls at Night $24.00
This book goes on sale May 26, 2015.Â
New York, NY: Knopf (2015)
As new in dust jacket.
A senior-aged widow and widower forge a loving bond over shared loneliness and respective histories, provoking local gossip and the disapproval of their grown children in ways that are further complicated by an extended visit by a sad young grandchild.
Plainsong $100.00
Read our article about Kent Haruf – Collecting From the Heart
New York, NY: Knopf (1999)
Near fine in dust jacket.
In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising two young boys alone after their mother retreats first to her 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. As the milieu widens to embrace four generations, Kent Haruf displays an emotional and aesthetic authority to rival the past masters of a classic American tradition.
Eventide $100.00
This signed first edition is sold out. Please check back with us again.
New York, NY: Knopf (2004)
Near fine in dust jacket.
0ne of the most beloved novels in recent years, “Plainsong” was a best-seller from coast to coast–and now Kent Hand returns to the high plains around Holt, Colorado, with a story of even greater authority. When the McPheron brothers see the single mother they’d taken in move away to college, an emptiness opens before them, and for many other townspeople as well it promises to be a long, hard winter. A young boy living alone with his grandfather helps out a neighbor whose husband, off in Alaska, suddenly isn’t coming home, leaving her to raise their two daughters. The children of a disabled couple suffer indignities at school that their parents know all too well, with only a social worker to look after them. But in a small town a great many people encounter one another frequently, often surprisingly, and destinies soon become entwined as they confront events that sorely test their resilience, with no shelter available except their own character. Spring eventually reaches across the land, and how the people of “Eventide” get there makes for an engrossing, profoundly moving novel rich in the wisdom and humanity for which Kent Haruf is justly acclaimed.