Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
From National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree and Flannery O'Connor Award winner Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in 1950s Alaska in the years leading up to statehood, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders
150 acres of Alaskan wilderness. For Lawrence, the parcel is opportunity. A piece carved out of a world that has never given him even the meager bit promised. For Marie, marrying the implacable man she meets at the Moose Lodge is a chance she takes almost without thinking. It might be an escape from a life that spins out emptily in front of her and an uncertain bet is better than none at all. Together in a territory on the verge of statehood and unshakeable change, they're tasked with shaping and settling a brutal and stolen land, and with tending a new marriage and fitting their damaged, hard-wrought lives together. But can they face the implacable without and within and make something new, or will they break apart trying?
At once an elemental and transporting depiction of an uncompromising place subject to the inescapable warp of America's civilizing impulse and a complex portrait of the white-hot crucible of early marriage, Melinda Moustakis' debut novel is painfully, joyfully alive to small intimacies and sweeping currents. Homestead is an unflinching vision of a new state and of the hard-fought, hard-bitten work of making a place.
Synopsis
From NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE and FLANNERY O'CONNOR AWARD WINNER Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in Alaska, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders
Moustakis has OCEANS OF TALENT. --Pam Houston
A writer who TRULY HAS EVERYTHING. --Jaimy Gordon
Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her, and a risky bet is better than none at all. But over the next few years, as they work the land in an attempt to secure a deed to their homestead, they must face everything they don't know about each other. As the Territory of Alaska moves toward statehood and inexorable change, can Marie and Lawrence create something new, or will they break apart trying?
Immersive and wild-hearted, joyfully alive to both the intimate and the elemental, Homestead is an unflinching portrait of a new state and of the hard-fought, hard-bitten work of making a family.
Synopsis
From NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE and FLANNERY O'CONNOR AWARD WINNER Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in Alaska, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders
"A beautiful novel, quiet as a snowfall, warm as a glowing wood stove...Admirers of Marilynne Robinson and Alice Munro are bound to appreciate." --NPR
"Spare and exquisite, tough and lovely. The sentences build on themselves, becoming expansive and staggering in their sweep." --The New York Times Book Review
Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the prospect of homesteading than anything else. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her, and a risky bet is better than none at all. But over the next few years, as they work the land in an attempt to secure a deed to their homestead, they must face everything they don't know about each other. As the Territory of Alaska moves toward statehood and inexorable change, can Marie and Lawrence create something new, or will they break apart trying?
Immersive and wild-hearted, joyfully alive to both the intimate and the elemental, Homestead is an unflinching portrait of a new state and of the hard-fought, hard-bitten work of making a family.