The Farmer's Daughter - by Jim Harrison (Paperback)

About the Book

A collection of three novellas, "The Farmer's Daughter" is a memorable portrait of three decidedly unconventional American lives from the author of the "New York Times" Notable Book "The English Major."

Book Synopsis

Jim Harrison's fifteen works of fiction have established him as one of the most beloved and popular authors in American fiction. His last novel, The English Major, was a National Indie Bestseller, a New York Times Book Review notable, and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year. Harrison's latest collection of novellas, The Farmer's Daughter, finds him writing at the height of his powers, and in fresh and audacious new directions.

The three stories in The Farmer's Daughter are as different as they are unforgettable. Written in the voice of a home-schooled fifteen-year-old girl in rural Montana, the title novella is an uncompromising, beautiful tale of an extraordinary character whose youth intersects with unexpected brutality, and the reserves she must draw on to make herself whole. In another, Harrison's beloved recurring character Brown Dog, still looking for love, escapes from Canada back to the States on the tour bus of an Indian rock band called Thunderskins. And finally, a retired werewolf, misdiagnosed with a rare blood disorder brought on by the bite of a Mexican hummingbird, attempts to lead a normal life but is nevertheless plagued by hazy, feverish episodes of epic lust, physical appetite, athletic exertions, and outbursts of violence under the full moon.

The Farmer's Daughter is a memorable portrait of three decidedly unconventional American lives. With wit, poignancy, and an unbounded love for his characters, Jim Harrison has again reminded us why he is one of the most cherished and important authors at work today.

Review Quotes

"[Harrison's] sentences ... fuse on the page with a power and blunt beauty." -- Jennifer Egan

"Bawdy and engaging ... Wives, daughters of America, for your reading Papa, this ribald, questing, utterly charming and Zen-serious novel ... is the book of the year." -- Alan Cheuse

"Harrison's language seems to come straight from America's center of gravity, the core of the country where people still live by a code and think for themselves.... After twenty-five books Harrison is ... closing in on the status of a national treasure." -- Anthony Brandt

"The English Major is to midlife crisis what The Catcher in the Rye is to adolescence....Without any preachiness or sentiment, Harrison gives us more than one dimension to live in. He gives us the four directions." -- Susan Salter Reynolds

"This is a master writer who has some important things to say about life and how to live it." -- Ron Antonucci