Plainsong lays out a year in the life of Holt, an unremarkable small town in the High Plains east of Denver, and a high school history teacher who stands up to ominous pressure to pass a failing student; two small boys whose mother is gradually disappearing into depression; a shy 17-year-old girl kicked out of her home when her mother discovers the girl’s pregnancy; and two grizzled bachelor brothers whose life revolves around their cattle.

 In alternating chapters Haruf tells each of their stories with an unflinching tone, so that the unexpected intersections of his character’s lives come to seem not just interesting but deeply, reassuringly right.

The New York Times called it “a novel so foursquare, so delicate and lovely, that it has the power to exalt the reader,” and Salon described reading the book as “like being in an expertly piloted small plane, finding yourself flying low and smooth over the suddenly wondrous world below.”

Plainsong won the Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, the Maria Thomas Award in Fiction, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the New Yorker Book Award.

Call the library at 426-4533 for more information on this discussion or to learn about future book group meetings.