The Distance Home : A Novel

';[Paula] Saunders skillfully illuminates how time heals certain wounds while deepening others. . . .A mediation of the violence of American ambition.'The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE

';A deeply involving portrait of the American postwar family' (Jennifer Egan)about sibling rivalry, dark secrets, and a young girl's struggle with freedom and artistic desire

In the years after World War II, the bleak yet beautiful plains of South Dakota still embody all the contradictionsthe ruggedness and the promiseof the old frontier. This is a place where you can eat strawberries from wild vines, where lightning reveals a boundless horizon, where descendants of white settlers and native Indians continueto collide, and where, for most, there are limited options.
Rene shares a home, a family, and a passion for dance with her older brother, Leon. Yet for all they have in common, their lives are on remarkably different paths. In contrast to Rene, a born spitfire, Leon is a gentle soul. The only boy in their ballet class, Leon silently endures often brutal teasing. Meanwhile, Rene excels at everything she touches, basking in the delighted gaze of their father, whom Leon seems to disappoint no matter how hard he tries.

As the years pass, Rene and Leon's parents fight with increasing frequencyand ferocity. Their fathera cattle brokerspends more time on the road, his sporadic homecomings both yearned for and dreaded by the children. And as Rene and Leon grow up, they grow apart. They grasp whatever they can to stay afloata word of praise, a grandmother's outstretched hand, the seductive attention of a strangeras Rene works to save herself, crossing the border into a larger, more hopeful world, while Leon embarks on a path of despair and self-destruction.

Tender, searing, and unforgettable, The Distance Home is a profoundly American story spanning decadesa tale of haves and have-nots, of how our ideas of winning and losing, success and failure, lead us inevitably into various problems with empathy and caring for one another. It's a portrait of beauty and brutality in which the author's compassionate narration allows us to sympathize, in turn, with everyone involved.

';A riveting family saga for the ages . . . one of the best books I've read in years.'Mary Karr

';Saunders' debut is an exquisite, searing portrait of family and of people coping with whatever life throws at them while trying to keep close to one another.'Booklist(starred review)