Homestead [Paperback]

Each life has its place, and every variation ripples the surface of the tiny alpine village called Rosenau. Be it a mysteriously misaddressed love letter or a girl's careless delivery of two helpless relatives into Nazi hands, the town's balance is ever tested, and ever tender. Here is a novel spanning eighty years -- years that bring factories and wars, store-bought cheese and city-trained teachers -- weaving the fates of the wives, mothers, and daughters in this remote corner of Austria. To quote Rosellen Brown, the women in this haunting book are deeply and uniquely of their place, yet they speak (often wordlessly) of women's longings and satisfactions everywhere.

Each life has its place, and every variation ripples the surface of the tiny alpine village called Rosenau. Be it a mysteriously misaddressed love letter or a girl's careless delivery of two helpless relatives into Nazi hands, the town's balance is ever tested, and ever tender. Here is a novel spanning eighty years -- years that bring factories and wars, store-bought cheese and city-trained teachers -- weaving the fates of the wives, mothers, and daughters in this remote corner of Austria. To quote Rosellen Brown, the women in this haunting book are deeply and uniquely of their place, yet they speak (often wordlessly) of women's longings and satisfactions everywhere.

This is a novel of great depth, compassion and tenderness. -- Brigitte Frase The New York Times

Each of the 12 keenly observed, interconnected stories in this absorbing debut collection focuses on an epochal moment in the life of one of three generations of women in the tiny Austrian town of Rosenau and the surrounding homesteads. Although Rosenau is bounded on all sides by the Alps, there is a slow influx of events from the outside world. When the book opens in 1909, a postcard arrives at the general store, and the effects of this brief misaddressed note ripple the surface of the isolated hamlet. Latl×