Old Border Road: A Novel

Susan Froderberg

Dec 2010 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

Katherine is 17, living alone in the beautiful, desolate landscape of southern Arizona. Her mother is feckless, her father busy with his new family. Meeting Son, the scion of a local rancher, seems like deliverance. They marry and live as a family in his parents' venerable adobe house, but it soon becomes clear that Son is a man who, as his father says, has a "young heart near withered beneath the breastbone."

Katherine must find her own way during a dangerous months-long drought, when everything seems to be disintegrating around her. Susan Froderberg's incantatory language -- and her deep knowledge of both the complexities of a small, deeply-rooted place and the human heart -- make Old Border Road soar.

Ratings and reviews

Katherine is only 17 years old when she meets and then marries "Son". The honeymoon ends all too quickly as they get settled into the adobe house, shared by his parents, in the middle of nowhere, Arizona. Life is hard on the ranch, especially when a drought comes and adds more work and worry for the family. Son often makes his way into town each evening to "take care of business", leaving Katherine home with his parents. With their gentle counsel and guidance, she learns about ranch life and what it takes to make it in this desolate area. When Katherine meets the "business" that Son has been taking care of in town, she is faced with some hard choices for a girl her age. Susan Froderberg's novel is haunting and the characters are certainly "characters". Although "Old Border Road" is set in modern day, the story seems to balance between the world today and one that used to be. The lead character faces many of the things in life that scare us most, leaving the reader to mull over what their own choices might have been in similar circumstances.

About the author

Susan Froderberg was born in Washington State. She moved east to study medical ethics and philosophy at Columbia University, where she received her doctorate. Froderberg lives with her husband in New York City. Old Border Road is her first book.