“More than forty years of history bookend a lifelong love affair with reading for the resilient heroine of [this] novel set in Harvester, Minnesota.” —Kirkus Reviews A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of the Year When Nell Stillman’s boorish husband dies soon after they move to the small town of Harvester, Minnesota, Nell is alone, penniless yet responsible for her beloved baby boy, Hillyard. Not an easy fate in small-town America at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the face of nearly insurmountable odds, Nell finds strength in lasting friendships and in the rich inner life awakened by the novels she reads. She falls in love with John Flynn, a charming congressman who becomes a father figure for Hillyard. She teaches at the local school and volunteers at the public library, where she meets Stella Wheeler and her charismatic daughter Sally. She becomes a friend and confidant to many of the girls in town, including Arlene and Lark Erhardt. And no matter how difficult her day, Nell ends each evening with a beloved book, in this novel that celebrates the strength and resourcefulness of independent women, the importance of community, and the transformative power of reading. “Sullivan describes small-town life through the eyes of an intelligent, generous narrator who fights off gossip, pettiness and tragedy with compassion, perseverance and forgiveness. Who wouldn’t want to spend a late-summer afternoon or two in the company of such a person?” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Her novels are a reliably inviting world, full of friendly faces and intimate dramas. However you first make your way to Harvester, you’ll want to return.” —The Wall Street Journal “[An] inspiring novel, which should find its way onto the reading lists of book clubs.” —Publishers Weekly

Nell Stillman's road is not easy. When her boorish husband dies soon after they move to the small town of Harvester, Minnesota, Nell is alone, penniless yet responsible for her beloved baby boy, Hillyard. Not an easy fate in small-town America at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the face of nearly insurmountable odds, Nell finds strength in lasting friendships and in the rich inner life awakened by the novels she loves. She falls in love with John Flynn, a charming congressman who becomes a father figure for Hillyard. She teaches at the local school and volunteers at the public library, where she meets Stella Wheeler and her charismatic daughter Sally. She becomes a trusted friend and confidant to many of the girls in town, including Arlene and Lark Erhardt. And no matter how difficult her day, Nell ends each evening with a beloved book in her hands. The triumphant return of a great American storyteller, Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse celebrates the strength and resourcefulness of independent women, the importance of community, and the transformative power of reading.

A disarmingly involving portrait of a family struggling to stay together through the Great Depression, The Cape Ann is an unforgettable story of life from a child’s-eye view. Lark Erhardt, the six-year-old narrator of The Cape Ann, and her fiercely independent mother dream of owning their own house; they have their hearts set on the Cape Ann, chosen from a house catalog. But when Lark’s father’s gambling threatens the down payment her mother has worked so hard to save, Lark’s mother takes matters into her own indomitable hands.

“Rapturous . . . The joyful sense of community within this love story offers a charming and refreshing escape from the modern world.” —Kirkus Reviews Growing up in early twentieth-century Illinois, Ruby Drake is a happy child. But one winter’s night, her beloved parents perish in an accident—and suddenly Ruby finds herself destitute and nearly alone in the world. Her new path eventually takes her to Harvester, Minnesota, where she’s lucky enough to find work on the welcoming Schoonover farm. Kind Emma, forward-thinking Henry, and their hired men—ambitious Dennis and reserved Jake—soon become a second family to the orphaned teenager. Young women are expected to be focused on courtship and marriage, but the industrious, bright Ruby searches for opportunities to expand her horizons at every step. Mastering her responsibilities on the farm. Learning to smoke cigarettes. Borrowing books from the local lending library, reading devotedly and expansively: mythology, romance, poetry. And falling in love with her married neighbor, Roland. But when Ruby is asked to care for Roland’s wife in the wake of tragedy, she is torn between duty and passion, between what has been her lot and what could be, in this story of friendship, romance, and the families we are born with and create—and of one woman’s journey of selfhood on the prairie. “Her novels are a reliably inviting world, full of friendly faces and intimate dramas. However you first make your way to Harvester, you’ll want to return.” —The Wall Street Journal

Ten years ago, Bess Canby's parents died in a suspicious car accident. Since then Bess has lived with her Aunt Kate and Cousin Harriet -- a makeshift family that seemed as solid as any in town. Now, in the space of three days, each woman must decide how much she owes to the past and how much to the future. Bess, who is leaving for college in the fall, finds herself involved with a married man. Middle-aged Harriet is comfortable with her spinster's life until a widowed farmer comes courting. And Kate, deeply saddened by the death of her husband and the loss of their farm years before, dispenses acerbic advice to her younger cousins, while secretly battling the ghosts who live at the heart of all their lives. Critical Acclaim for The Cape Ann: "Like To Kill a Mockingbird, [it] is a story of a child's loss of innocence, of a growing awareness of just how complex life can be." -- Washington Post Book World "A fascinating, original novel." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

After her father's untimely death, Theresa faced a rocky and unstable childhood. But there was one place she felt safe: her grandmother's house in Mason, a depressed former copper mining town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Gram's passing leaves Theresa once again at the mercy of the lasting, sometimes destructive grief of her Ojibwe mother and white stepfather. As the family travels back and forth across the country in search of a better life, one thing becomes clear: if they want to find peace, they will need to return to their roots. The Mason House is at once an elegy for lost loved ones and a tale of growing up amid hardship and hope, exploring how time and the support of a community can at last begin to heal even the deepest wounds.