Mary's Place - by Charlotte Hinger (Paperback)

About the Book

Set against the backdrop of the farm crisis of the 1980s, Charlotte Hinger's moving novel explores the lives of Mary and Iron Barrett as they face the multiple calamities imposed by overproduction, debt, falling commodity prices, rural bank restructuring, and internal family dysfunction.

Book Synopsis

Finalist for the 2025 Spur Award
Finalist for the 2025 Colorado Book Award

Iron and Mary Barrett's farming family is rural royalty, their success symbolized by a magnificent three-story house, Mary's Place. Years in the building, the house is a testament to Mary's grit and organizational abilities. But when bank examiners apply new ratings for agricultural loans in the 1980s, the family's belief that its prosperity is a natural outcome of hard work is sent reeling.

Bank president J.C. Espy had never done anything crooked in his life until the FDIC changed the rules for agricultural loans. After becoming desperate to save his hundred-year-old bank, he worries that his resulting choice will cause his friend Iron to lose his land. Frantically J.C. works to convince Iron he will lose everything if he doesn't comply with the new standards. In the meantime, both Iron and J.C. must negotiate with sons who have contempt for their fathers' old-fashioned values. While Iron agonizes, Mary maneuvers to keep the family together and save the farm.

Mary's Place is an unforgettable tribute to the rural families who weathered one of the worst agricultural disasters in American history.

Review Quotes

"This book will resonate with anyone familiar with the trials of farm life."--Kansas History

"Powerful, touching and real, Mary's Place is a deeply woven understanding of the human spirit, its strength and its will to survive."--Milana Marsenich, Roundup Magazine

"Mary's Place is a riveting, powerful novel, confidently twisty, that pits a beleaguered old banker against his lifelong friend."--Kathleen O'Neal Gear, New York Times best-selling author of The Ice Orphan

"A fresh look at the Wild West--1980s style--pitting a Kansas farming family against bankers, weather, governmental bureaucracy, the FDIC, and each other. Charlotte Hinger writes with passion and authority, telling a poignant story that is unpredictable, powerful, and terribly real."--Johnny D. Boggs, nine-time Spur Award-winning author

"I was caught up with the real and powerful characters in Mary's Place and teared up at threats they might lose their farm. Then teared up again when something right and wonderful took place. I loved this book."--Irene Bennett Brown, award-winning author of the Nickel Hill series

"What happens when a national farm crisis falls on the heads of a troubled farm family? As told in this beautifully crafted, compelling novel, the calamity produces panic, hostility, self-doubt, and betrayal, but it also spawns startling outbursts of courage, self-sacrifice, and grit. . . . Charlotte Hinger gives us a universal tale of human frailty and the struggle for virtue contained within a single family's fight to survive."--Richard Edwards, coauthor of The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders' Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America's Great Migration

About the Author

Charlotte Hinger is the award-winning author of a number of historical and mystery novels, including The Healer's Daughter and Come Spring, as well as the nonfiction book Nicodemus: Post-Reconstruction Politics and Racial Justice in Western Kansas.