A Thousand Acres - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804111340 ISBN 13: 9780804111348

Publisher: Ivy Books

Synopsis

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling novel from one of America’s greatest contemporary writers.

Larry Cook’s farm is the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa, and a tribute to his hard work and single-mindedness. Proud and possessive, his sudden decision to retire and hand over the farm to his three daughters, is disarmingly uncharacteristic.

Ginny and Rose, the two eldest, are startled yet eager to accept, but Caroline, the youngest daughter, has misgivings. Immediately, her father cuts her out.

In A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley transposes the King Lear story to the modern day, and in so doing at once illuminates Shakespeare’s original and subtly transforms it. This astonishing novel won both of America’s highest literary awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics’ Circle Award.

About this title

Review:

Ageing Larry Cook announces his intention to turn over his 1,000-acre farm--one of the largest in Zebulon County, Iowa--to his three daughters, Caroline, Ginny and Rose. A man of harsh sensibilities, he carves Caroline out of the deal because she has the nerve to be less than enthusiastic about her father's generosity. While Larry Cook deteriorates into a pathetic drunk, his daughters are left to cope with the often grim realities of life on a family farm--from battering husbands to cut-throat lenders. In this winner of the US 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, Smiley captures the essence of such a life with stark, painful detail. --Amazon.com

Review:

‘A Thousand Acres is a strong, gnarled shocker of a novel... superb.’
Sunday Times

‘Epic fiction of the very highest order, naturalistic , penetrating and wholly absorbing.’
Literary Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Ivy Books
• ISBN 10: 0804111340
• ISBN 13: 9780804111348
• Binding: Paperback