Synopses & Reviews
A return to the fictional town of Port William,
Hannah Coulter is the title character's lucid recollection of her long full life.
"Ignorant boys, killing each other," is just about all Nathan Coulter would tell his wife about the Battle of Okinawa in November 1945. Life continued as some boys returned from the war while the lives of others were mourned. Nathan's wife, Hannah, has time now to tell of the years since the war.
In her eighties, twice-widowed and alone, Hannah shares her memories: of her childhood, of young love and loss, of raising children and the changing seasons. She turns her plain gaze to a community facing its own deterioration, where, she says, "We feel the old fabric torn, pulling apart, and we know how much we have loved each other." Hannah offers her summation: her stories and her gratitude for membership in Port William. We see her whole life as part of the great continuum of love and memory, grief and strength.
Hannah Coulter is the latest installment in Wendell Berry's long story about the citizens of Port William, Kentucky. In his unforgettable prose, we learn of the Coulters' children, of the Feltners and Branches, and how survivors "live right on."
Review
"Atmospheric and quietly moving: a tale that manages to avoid outright bathos as it makes its way along the narrow boundary between memoir and nostalgia." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"Berry is at his best when his characters' competent, self-sufficient lives are thrust against the brutal forces of modernity....Hannah Coulter is set in the latter half of the past century, but like the best contemporary fiction, it is informed by our present moment." Seattle Times
Synopsis
Hannah Coulter is Wendell Berry's seventh novel and his first to employ the voice of a woman character in its telling. Hannah, the now-elderly narrator, recounts the love she has for the land and for her community. She remembers each of her two husbands, and all places and community connections threatened by twentieth-century technologies. At risk is the whole culture of family farming, hope redeemed when her wayward and once lost grandson, Virgil, returns to his rural home place to work the farm.
Synopsis
Hannah Coulter is the latest installment in Wendell Berry's long story about the citizens of Port William, Kentucky. In his unforgettable prose, readers learn of the Coulters' children, of the Feltners and Branches, and how survivors "live right on."
Synopsis
Hannah Coulter is Wendell Berry's seventh novel in the Port William series of novels and his first with a woman as the main character. Now in her eighties and living alone, Hannah as her way of giving thanks looks back at her life. Her journey through time leads us to a new understanding of her family, neighbors and friends those who have stood by her for decades. Through them all she comes to see herself as part of a great continuum of love and memory, grief and devotion. Wendell Berry has has written a novel of great depth and strength that will remind you that he is one of America's finest novelists.
About the Author
Wendell Berry is the author of over forty books of fiction, poetry, and essays, including The Unsettling of America, What are People For?, Another Turn of the Crank, and Citizenship Papers. He has farmed a hillside in his native Henry County, Kentucky, for over thirty years. A former professor of English at the University of Kentucky, he has received numerous awards for his work, including the T. S. Eliot Award, the Aiken Taylor Award for Poetry, and the John Hay Award of the Orion Society.