ISBN: 037 5411 585

Plainsong is a modern American classic that sits comfortably in the company of works by Steinbeck and Hemmingway through to Richard Ford. It is a simple story that captures effortlessly the day to day struggles of its principal characters set against a rugged landscape that is ever brooding in the background.

ISBN: 033 0396 633

Heavy-built Jack Burdette is quite literally too big for his boots -- and too big, certainly, for the small-town attitudes of Holt, Colorado. But when he fails to make the grade as a college footballer, and takes a job with the local farmers' cooperative, it seems he has finally settled into the rhythm and routine of everyday life. Outward appearances can be deceptive, however, as Jack proves: returning from a weekend conference with a new wife in tow, then leaving her behind and skipping town with a bundle of other folks' money. Nearly a decade later, no one has forgiven or forgotten, and when Jack reappears, resentment runs high. Once again, though, it is Jack whose presence -- even more than his eight-year absence -- proves the most devastating.

With sparse, simple prose, Kent Haruf paints a revealing and insightful portrait of small-town life -- and the chilling consequences of one man's actions.

ISBN: 033 0490 46X

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Colorado, January 1977. Eighty-year old Edith Goodnough lies in a hospital bed, IV taped to the back of her hand, police officer at her door. She is charged with murder. The clues: a sack of chicken feed slit with a knife, a milky-eyed dog tied outdoors one cold afternoon. The motives: the brutal business of farming and a family code of ethics as unforgiving as the winter prairie itself. Breathtaking, determinedly truthful, THE TIE THAT BINDS is a powerfully eloquent tribute to the arduous demands of rural America and of the tenacity of the human spirit.

ISBN: 014 0084 665

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