The Road Home

Jim Harrison

Dec 2007 · Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

About this ebook

In one of Jim Harrison’s greatest works, five members of the Northridge family narrate the tangled epic of their history on the Nebraska plains.
 
The Road Home continues the story of the captivating heroine Dalva and her peculiar and remarkable family. It encompasses the voices of Dalva’s grandfather John Northridge, the austere, hard-living half-Sioux patriarch; Naomi, the widow of his favorite son and namesake; Paul, the first Northridge son, who lived in the shadow of his brother; and Nelse, the son taken from Dalva at birth, who now has returned to find her. It is haunted by the hovering spirits of the father and the lover Dalva lost to this country’s wars. It is a family history drenched in suffering and joy, imbued with fierce independence and love, rooted in the Nebraska soil, and intertwined with the destiny of whites and native Americans in the American West.
 
Epic in scope, stretching from the close of the nineteenth century to the present day, The Road Home is a stunning and trenchant novel, written with the humor, humanity, and inimitable evocation of the American spirit that have delighted Jim Harrison’s legion of fans.
 
“A graceful novel . . . To read this book is to feel the luminosity of nature in one’s own being.” —The New York Times Book Review
 
“The Road Home confirms what his longtime fans already know: Harrison is on the short list of American literary masters.” —The Denver Post
 
“Demonstrates why [Harrison] is considered one of the best storytellers around.” —The Washington Post
 
“The Road Home is Harrison at the peak of his powers, a splendid combined prequel and sequel . . . very much alive and probably his best novel.” —Boston Sunday Herald

About the author

James Thomas Harrison was born on December 11, 1937 in Grayling, Michigan. After receiving a B.A. in comparative literature from Michigan State University in 1960 and a M.A. in comparative literature from the same school in 1964, he briefly taught English at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. During his lifetime, he wrote 14 collections of poetry, 21 volumes of fiction, two books of essays, a memoir, and a children's book. His collections of poetry included Plain Song, The Theory and Practice of Rivers, Songs of Unreason, and Dead Man's Float. He received a Guggenheim fellowship for his poetry in 1969. His essays on food, much of which first appeared in Esquire, was collected in the 2001 book, The Raw and the Cooked. His memoir, Off to the Side, was published in 2002. His first novel, Wolf, was published in 1971. His other works of fiction included A Good Day to Die, Farmer, The Road Home, Julip, and The Ancient Minstrel. His novel, Legends of the Fall, was adapted into a feature film starring Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. Harrison wrote the screenplay for the movie. His novel, Dalva, was adapted as a made-for-television movie starring Rod Steiger and Farrah Fawcett. He died on March 26, 2016 at the age of 78.