â[Paula] Saunders skillfully illuminates how time heals certain wounds while deepening others. . . . A mediation of the violence of American ambition.ââThe New York Times Book Review
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE
âA deeply involving portrait of the American postwar familyâ (Jennifer Egan) about sibling rivalry, dark secrets, and a young girlâs struggle with freedom and artistic desire
In the years after World War II, the bleak yet beautiful plains of South Dakota still embody all the contradictionsâthe ruggedness and the promiseâof the old frontier. This is a place where you can eat strawberries from wild vines, where lightning reveals a boundless horizon, where descendants of white settlers and native Indians continue to collide, and where, for most, there are limited options.
RenÊ shares a home, a family, and a passion for dance with her older brother, Leon. Yet for all they have in common, their lives are on remarkably different paths. In contrast to RenÊ, a born spitfire, Leon is a gentle soul. The only boy in their ballet class, Leon silently endures often brutal teasing. Meanwhile, RenÊ excels at everything she touches, basking in the delighted gaze of their father, whom Leon seems to disappoint no matter how hard he tries.
As the years pass, RenÊ and Leonâs parents fight with increasing frequencyâand ferocity. Their fatherâa cattle brokerâspends more time on the road, his sporadic homecomings both yearned for and dreaded by the children. And as RenÊ and Leon grow up, they grow apart. They grasp whatever they can to stay afloatâa word of praise, a grandmotherâs outstretched hand, the seductive attention of a strangerâas RenÊ works to save herself, crossing the border into a larger, more hopeful world, while Leon embarks on a path of despair and self-destruction.
Tender, searing, and unforgettable, The Distance Home is a profoundly American story spanning decadesâa tale of haves and have-nots, of how our ideas of winning and losing, success and failure, lead us inevitably into various problems with empathy and caring for one another. Itâs a portrait of beauty and brutality in which the authorâs compassionate narration allows us to sympathize, in turn, with everyone involved.
âA riveting family saga for the ages . . . one of the best books Iâve read in years.ââMary Karr
âSaundersâ debut is an exquisite, searing portrait of family and of people coping with whatever life throws at them while trying to keep close to one another.ââBooklist (starred review)