Description
In 1851 Bishop Latour and his friend Father Valliant are despatched to New Mexico to reawaken its slumbering Catholicism. Moving along the endless prairies, Latour spreads his faith the only way he knows - gently, although he must contend with the unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Over nearly forty years, they leave converts and enemies, crosses and occasionally ecstasy in their wake. But it takes a death for them to make their mark on the landscape forever ...
Willa Cather's best known novel; a narrative that recounts a life lived simply in the silence of the southwestern desert.
About the Author
Born in 1873 to a family who had farmed in Virginia for generations, Willa Cather moved to her father's new ranch in Nebraska when she was eight. The raw frontier territories and the pioneer life of the Old West were to awaken her imagination and furnish the atmosphere for much of her later work. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Willa Cather became a teacher and a journalist. In 1912 she abandoned journalism to write full time. Her first novel was Alexander's Bridge (1912) though she had already published a volume of poems and another of short stories. Her vivid novels cover a wide range: there are impassioned and thoughtful explorations of the ancient worlds of the Americas in The Professor's House (1925) and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) as well as sympathetic portrayals of conflicting values, or of the demands of art. These, along with her evocations of the pioneering West, soon established her reputation as one of America's foremost writers. Willa Cather died in New York in 1947.
Reviews
A powerful piece of writing, rich with the essence of a poor but beautiful country and a simple yet dignified people * Sunday Times *
A tremendous, ranging story, economical and distilled as poetry -- Jane Gardam
Quite simply a masterpiece . . . I am completely bowled over by it; by the power of its writing, by the vividness of its scene painting and by the stories it tells . . . This is a book which I go on rereading -- A. N. Wilson * Daily Telegraph *
Its whole effect works slowly and mysteriously . . . a major, and rare, artistic achievement -- A. S. Byatt
Book Information
ISBN 9781844083725
Author Willa Cather
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 180g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 20mm
Willa Cather's best known novel; a narrative that recounts a life lived simply in the silence of the southwestern desert.
About the Author
Born in 1873 to a family who had farmed in Virginia for generations, Willa Cather moved to her father's new ranch in Nebraska when she was eight. The raw frontier territories and the pioneer life of the Old West were to awaken her imagination and furnish the atmosphere for much of her later work. After graduating from the University of Nebraska, Willa Cather became a teacher and a journalist. In 1912 she abandoned journalism to write full time. Her first novel was Alexander's Bridge (1912) though she had already published a volume of poems and another of short stories. Her vivid novels cover a wide range: there are impassioned and thoughtful explorations of the ancient worlds of the Americas in The Professor's House (1925) and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) as well as sympathetic portrayals of conflicting values, or of the demands of art. These, along with her evocations of the pioneering West, soon established her reputation as one of America's foremost writers. Willa Cather died in New York in 1947.
Reviews
A powerful piece of writing, rich with the essence of a poor but beautiful country and a simple yet dignified people * Sunday Times *
A tremendous, ranging story, economical and distilled as poetry -- Jane Gardam
Quite simply a masterpiece . . . I am completely bowled over by it; by the power of its writing, by the vividness of its scene painting and by the stories it tells . . . This is a book which I go on rereading -- A. N. Wilson * Daily Telegraph *
Its whole effect works slowly and mysteriously . . . a major, and rare, artistic achievement -- A. S. Byatt
Book Information
ISBN 9781844083725
Author Willa Cather
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Virago Press Ltd
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 180g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 20mm
