A Thousand Acres : A Novel

This powerful twentieth-century reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear centres on a wealthy Iowa farmer who decides to divide his farm between his three daughters. When the youngest objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. Ambitiously conceived and stunningly written, A Thousand Acres takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride — and reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity."In her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1991 novel, Smiley paints an "American Gothic" family portrait, but her palette is hardly limited to black and blue: the umber corduroy of the furrowed fields, the sun on the bedroom sheers, even the Quaker gray of the asphalt that bisects the Cook family farm." - Rita Kempley, The Washington PostJane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. She published her first novel, Barn Blind, in 1980, and won a 1985 O. Henry Award for her short story "Lily", which was published in The Atlantic Monthly. Her best-selling A Thousand Acres, a story based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992.

over An Extraordinary Twenty-year Career, Jane Smiley Has Written All Kinds Of Novels: Mystery, Comedy, Historical Fiction, Epic. “is There Anything Jane Smiley Cannot Do?” Raves time magazine. But In The Wake Of 9/11, Smiley Faltered In Her Hitherto Unflagging Impulse To Write And Decided To Approach Novels From A Different Angle: She Read One Hundred Of Them, From Classics Such As The Thousand-year-old tale Of Genji To Recent Fiction By Zadie Smith, Nicholson Baker, And Alice Munro.

smiley Explores–as No Novelist Has Before Her–the Unparalleled Intimacy Of Reading, Why A Novel Succeeds (or Doesn’t), And How The Novel Has Changed Over Time. She Describes A Novelist As “right On The Cusp Between Someone Who Knows Everything And Someone Who Knows Nothing,” Yet Whose “job And Ambition Is To Develop A Theory Of How It Feels To Be Alive.”

in Her Inimitable Style–exuberant, Candid, Opinionated–smiley Invites Us Behind The Scenes Of Novel-writing, Sharing Her Own Habits And Spilling The Secrets Of Her Craft. She Walks Us Step-by-step Through The Publication Of Her Most Recent Novel, good Faith, and, In Two Vital Chapters On How To Write “a Novel Of Your Own,” Offers Priceless Advice To Aspiring Authors. 

thirteen Ways Of Looking At The Novel may Amount To A Peculiar Form Of Autobiography. we See Smiley Reading In Bed With A Chocolate Bar; Mulling Over Plot Twists While Cooking Dinner For Her Family; Even, At The Age Of Twelve, Devouring Sherlock Holmes Mysteries, Which She Later Realized Were Among Her Earliest Literary Models For Plot Andcharacter.

and In An Exhilarating Conclusion, Smiley Considers Individually The One Hundred Books She Read, From don Quixote to lolita to atonement, presenting Her Own Insights And Often Controversial Opinions. in Its Scope And Gleeful Eclecticism, Her Reading List Is One Of The Most Compelling–and Surprising–ever Assembled.

engaging, Wise, Sometimes Irreverent, thirteen Ways Is Essential Reading For Anyone Who Has Ever Escaped Into The Pages Of A Novel Or, For That Matter, Wanted To Write One. In Smiley’s Own Words, Ones She Found Herself Turning To Over The Course Of Her Journey: “read This. I Bet You’ll Like It.”

publishers Weekly

plagued By A Sense Of Despair While Writing Her Last Novel, Good Faith, Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Smiley (a Thousand Acres, Etc.) Decided To Return To The Enterprise That Got Her Started As A Writer: Reading. The Result Is A Book That Sets Out To Investigate The Novel Itself. Smiley Does Not Offer A Radically New Way Of Seeing The Novel. Instead, Her Study Is Methodical And Cumulative, Producing A Wonderful Text, Opinionated But Not Argumentative, Instructive But Not Heavily Theoretical Text. The Book Is Roughly Divided Into Three Sections: The First Classifies The Novel, Beginning With The Most Simple Of Definitions (e.g., It's Long, In Prose, Has A Protagonist), And Adds Moral And Aesthetic Complexity As It Moves Along. The Second Section Consists Of A Primer For Fledgling Novelists. Here Smiley's Years As A Writing Instructor Show; Her Attitude Toward All Potential Novelists Is Open-minded And Generous, Acknowledging The Difficulty Of The Project While Providing Encouragement To Continue. Finally, The Book Turns To The Hundred Novels She Chose To Read, From The Tale Of Genji And Don Quixote To White Teeth And Atonement, Devoting A Few Pages To A Consideration Of Each. The Result Is A Thorough Reflection On The Art And Craft Of The Novel From One Of Its Best-known Contemporary Practitioners.50,000 First Printing. (sept. 15) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Jane Smiley’s The Greenlanders is an enthralling novel in the epic tradition of the old Norse sagas.

Set in the fourteenth century in Europe’s most farflung outpost, a land of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains, The Greenlanders is the story of one family–proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Jane Smiley takes us into this world of farmers, priests, and lawspeakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us.

Publishers Weekly

In this vast, intricately patterned novel, Smiley accurately captures the voice of the medieval sagas. Understated, scattered with dreams and warnings, darkened by the brooding sense of unavoidable disasters to come, it is the tale of a Scandinavian settlement that lasted perhaps 500 years. With a meticulous attention to detail, the novel brings daily activities to lifefrom cheese making to hunting walruswhile examining the passions of a people under stress. The action centers on the family of Gunnar Asgeirsson. Gunnar's sister Margret is married off to Olaf, but he fails to consummate the marriage, and Margret begins a clandestine affair with a Norwegian sailor, Skuli Gudmundsson, who has stayed on in Greenland as a household retainer. Violence and tragedy ensue, and as Margret's unhappiness increases, her character hardens, and she offers her labor as an itinerant servingwoman. Although Margret is not always onstage, the novel spans the years of her long life. A foil to Margret, but no luckier, is Gunnar's wife, Birgitta, who is gifted with second sight. It is she who sums up the overriding sense of futility: ``We have come to the ending of the world, for in Greenland the world must end as it goes on, that is with hunger and storms and freezing.'' Like the original Norse sagas, The Greenlanders roves restlessly from one folk group to another. Many of their destinies interlock, and certain exterior forces prey upon them all: the harsh climate; the marauding ``skraelings,'' aboriginal Eskimos regarded as demons; outbreaks of bubonic plague and famine. Compulsive feuding, a witchcraft craze and a willingness to heed the apocalyptic prophecies of the madman Larus help to tear the society apart. As in her previous fiction (Duplicate Keys, The Age of Grief), this novel reveals Smiley's skill in delineating the behavior of individuals confined within a group. Her depiction of an isolated medieval folk battling for survival has a modern relevance. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate. (April)

The luminous novella and stories in The Age of Grief explore the vicissitudes of love, friendship, and marriage with all the compassion and insight that have come to be expected from Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize—winning author of A Thousand Acres.

In “The Pleasure of Her Company,” a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In “Long Distance,” a man finds himself relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape. And in the incandescently wise and moving title novella, a dentist, aware that his wife has fallen in love with someone else, must comfort her when she is spurned, while maintaining the secret of his own complicated sorrow. Beautifully written, with a wry intelligence and a lively comic touch, The Age of Grief captures moments of great intimacy with grace, clarity, and indelible emotional power.

Publishers Weekly

With authenticity, insight, sensitivity and an unobstrusive yet absorbing prose style, Smiley (Duplicate Keys portrays pained individuals who yearn for idyllic companionship, plus the contentment and security that they imagine it entails. In ``The Pleasure of Her Company,'' one of five short stories, a lonely pediatric nurse establishes a rapport with her new neighbors. Convinced that married couples share an inviolable, almost mystical bond that outsiders cannot fathom, she makes the unwelcome discovery that their apparent harmony is a facade. ``Lily'' is the tale of a love-hungry young poet whose bickering married friends arrive for a visit; Lily boldly hastens their break-up. In ``Dynamite,'' a former Barnard College radical still wanted by the FBI impulsively heads back to New York for the reassuring presence of her family. The novella from which this slim volume takes its title brilliantly shows a husband's agony when his wife's affection turns elsewhere. During a crisis over her infidelity, he emerges as an unforgettably valiant character: vulnerable, hurt, bewildered, though never without patience. This novella's quietly dramatic resolution is both appropriate and rewarding. (September 10)

Alice Ellis is a Midwestern refugee living in Manhattan. Still recovering from a painful divorce, she depends on the companionship and camaraderie of tightly knit circle of friends. At the center of this circle is a rock band struggling to navigate New York’s erratic music scene, and an apartment/practice space with approximately fifty key-holders. One sunny day, Alice enters the apartment and finds two of the band members shot dead. As the double-murder sends waves of shock through their lives, this group of friends begins to unravel, and dangerous secrets are revealed one by one. When Alice begins to notice things amiss in her own apartment, the tension breaks out as it occurs to her that she is not the only person with a key, and she may not get a chance to change the locks.

Jane Smiley applies her distinctive rendering of time, place, and the enigmatic intricacies of personal relationships to the twists and turns of suspense. The result is a brilliant literary thriller that will keep readers guessing up to its final, shocking conclusion.

From the author of A Thousand Acres comes a suspense thriller. A woman finds two people murdered in the apartment her bestfriend shared with one of the victims. The list of people with duplicate keys is two pages long . . . and includes people no one knows.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes a brilliant literary thriller set in Manhattan that's “as taut and chilling as anything Hitchcock put on film'(San Francisco Chronicle). “A first-rate cliffhanger.” —The New York Times Book ReviewAlice Ellis is a Midwestern refugee living in Manhattan. Still recovering from a painful divorce, she depends on the companionship and camaraderie of tightly knit circle of friends. At the center of this circle is a rock band struggling to navigate New York's erratic music scene, and an apartment/practice space with approximately fifty key-holders. One sunny day, Alice enters the apartment and finds two of the band members shot dead. As the double-murder sends waves of shock through their lives, this group of friends begins to unravel, and dangerous secrets are revealed one by one. When Alice begins to notice things amiss in her own apartment, the tension breaks out as it occurs to her that she is not the only person with a key, and she may not get a chance to change the locks. Jane Smiley applies her distinctive rendering of time, place, and the enigmatic intricacies of personal relationships to the twists and turns of suspense. The result is a thriller that will keep readers guessing up to its final, shocking conclusion. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes a brilliant literary thriller set in Manhattan thats as taut and chilling as anything Hitchcock put on film" ( San Francisco Chronicle). A first-rate cliffhanger. The New York Times Book Review Alice Ellis is a Midwestern refugee living in Manhattan. Still recovering from a painful divorce, she depends on the companionship and camaraderie of tightly knit circle of friends. At the center of this circle is a rock band struggling to navigate New Yorks erratic music scene, and an apartment/practice space with approximately fifty key-holders. One sunny day, Alice enters the apartment and finds two of the band members shot dead. As the double-murder sends waves of shock through their lives, this group of friends begins to unravel, and dangerous secrets are revealed one by one. When Alice begins to notice things amiss in her own apartment, the tension breaks out as it occurs to her that she is not the only person with a key, and she may not get a chance to change the locks. Jane Smiley applies her distinctive rendering of time, place, and the enigmatic intricacies of personal relationships to the twists and turns of suspense. The result is a thriller that will keep readers guessing up to its final, shocking conclusion.

national Bestseller

“smashing. . . . Fascinating. . . . Extremely Subtle And Nuanced. . . . [it Has The] Power To Beguile And Enthrall.” —the New York Times Book Review

the Introduction, Discussion Questions, Suggested Reading List, And Author Biography That Follow Are Designed To Enhance Your Group’s Reading Of Jane Smiley’s good Faith. In This New Novel She Brings Her Extraordinary Gifts To The Seductive, Wishful, Wistful World Of Real Estate, In Which The Sport Of Choice Is A Mind Game.

daniel Jones

[a] Lusty, Testosterone-pumped Tale, Which Both Revisits Smiley's Obsession With Infidelity And Underlines Her Remarkable Ability To Humanize An Industry. We're Back In The '80s Here-a Heady, Get-rich-quick Orgy Of Junk Bonds And Megadeals In Which He Who Hesitates Loses...good Faith Has 'cautionary Tale' Written All Over It-but You're Sucked In [by] This Story's Power, [which] Lies In The Fact That It Is Less About Lying Or Greed Of Friendship Gone Bad Than About Boldness Versus Caution And Our American Ambivalence About Which Is The Virtue And Which The Vice.—daniel Jones, Elle (may, 2003)

From Jane Smiley, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Thousand Acres: a pair of novellas chronicling difficult choices that reshape the dynamics of two very different families.

In Ordinary Love, Smiley focuses on a woman’s infidelity and the lasting, indelible effects it leaves on her children long after her departure. Good Will describes a father who realizes how his son has been affected by his decision to lead a counterculture life and move his family to a farm. As both stories unfold, Smiley gracefully raises the questions that confront all families with the characteristic style and insight that has marked all of her work.

These two novellas, by the author of The Age of Grief and The Greenlanders reveal the intricate and often heart-breaking inner workings of families. Here a woman recalls the long ago affair that ended her relationship with her husband and changed their lives. And a man discovers that the carefully planned lifestyle he has chosen for his family incorporates unexpected consequences. Nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres comes a “smashing...fascinating” novel (The New York Times Book Review) that conjures all the American obsessions of the 1980s: sex, greed, envy, real estate, and the American dream. In her subversively funny and genuinely moving new novel, Jane Smiley nails down several American preoccupations with the expertise of a master carpenter. Forthright, likable Joe Stratford is the kind of local businessman everybody trusts, for good reason. But it's 1982, and even in Joe's small town, values are in upheaval: not just property values, either. Enter Marcus Burns, a would-be master of the universe whose years with the IRS have taught him which rules are meant to be broken. Before long he and Joe are new best friends—and partners in an investment venture so complex that no one may ever understand it. Add to this Joe's roller coaster affair with his mentor's married daughter. The result is as suspenseful and entertaining as any of Jane Smiley's fiction. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres—a luminous novella and short stories that explore the vicissitudes of love, friendship, and marriage. • “A glorious achievement..... Infinitely satisfying..... A triumph.” —The New York Times Book Review In “The Pleasure of Her Company,” a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In “Long Distance,” a man finds himself relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape. And in the incandescently wise and moving title novella, a dentist, aware that his wife has fallen in love with someone else, must comfort her when she is spurned, while maintaining the secret of his own complicated sorrow. Beautifully written, with a wry intelligence and a lively comic touch, The Age of Grief captures moments of great intimacy with grace, clarity, and indelible emotional power. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres a luminous novella and short stories that explore the vicissitudes of love, friendship, and marriage. A glorious achievement.. Infinitely satisfying.. A triumph. The New York Times Book Review In The Pleasure of Her Company, a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In Long Distance, a man finds himself relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape. And in the incandescently wise and moving title novella, a dentist, aware that his wife has fallen in love with someone else, must comfort her when she is spurned, while maintaining the secret of his own complicated sorrow. Beautifully written, with a wry intelligence and a lively comic touch, The Age of Grief captures moments of great intimacy with grace, clarity, and indelible emotional power. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres—and'a diverse and masterly writer” (The New York Times Book Review)—comes an enthralling epic tale, written in the tradition of the old Norse sagas, that takes us to fourteenth-century Greenland and tells the story of a proud landowner and his unforgettable family. Jane Smiley brings us to a farflung place of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains. This is the story of one family: proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Jane Smiley immerses us in this world of farmers, priests, and lawspeakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us. Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling novelist Jane Smiley celebrates the novel--and takes us on an exhilarating tour through one hundred of them--in this seductive and immensely rewarding literary tribute.In her inimitable style--exuberant, candid, opinionated--Smiley explores the power of the novel, looking at its history and variety, its cultural impact, and just how it works its magic. She invites us behind the scenes of novel-writing, sharing her own habits and spilling the secrets of her craft. And she offers priceless advice to aspiring authors. As she works her way through one hundred novels--from classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to recent fiction by Zadie Smith and Alice Munro--she infects us anew with the passion for reading that is the governing spirit of this gift to book lovers everywhere.From the Trade Paperback edition. PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A "powerful and poignant" twentieth-century reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear ( The New York Times Book Review ) that takes on themes of truth, justice, love, and pride—and centers on a wealthy Iowa farmer who decides to divide his farm between his three daughters. When the youngest daughter objects, she is cut out of his will. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions. Ambitiously conceived and stunningly written, A Thousand Acres reveals the beautiful yet treacherous topography of humanity. “A family portrait that is also a near-epic investigation into the broad landscape, the thousand dark acres of the human heart.... The book has all the stark brutality of a Shakespearean tragedy.” — The Washington Post Book World Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Jane Smileys The Greenlanders is an enthralling novel in the epic tradition of the old Norse sagas. Set in the fourteenth century in Europes most far-flung outpost, a land of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains, The Greenlanders is the story of one familyproud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Jane Smiley takes us into this world of farmers, priests, and lawspeakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres—and “one of her generation's most eloquent chroniclers of ordinary familial love” (The New York Times)—comes two exquisite twin novellas that chronicle the difficult choices that reshape the lives of two very different families. In Ordinary Love, Smiley focuses on a woman's infidelity and the lasting, indelible effects it leaves on her children long after her departure. Good Will portrays a father who realizes how his son has been affected by his decision to lead a counterculture life and move his family to a farm. As both stories unfold, Smiley gracefully raises the questions that confront all families with the characteristic style and insight that has marked all of her work. They were six friends from the Midwest who moved to New York City with the high hopes of making a big-time splash in the music industry. Though the dream faded, the bonds between the tight-knit group did not. Or so it seemed. For one brilliantly sunny day, Alice Ellis discovers the grisly murders of two of the group, shot dead in the apartment for which any number of friends, acquaintances, and strangers had an extra set of keys. Written with the depth and passion of Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Thousand Acres, Duplicate Keys is a riveting suspense story about the emotional aftermath of murder - the jealousy and hatred, the deception and rage, and the shocking secrets that lie between even the closest of friends. The time is 1979. Larry Cook, a proud and exacting farmer, whose family has lived on this land for four generations, unexpectedly decides to retire and turn over his valuable holdings to his three daughters. For Ginny and Rose, who live on the farm with their husbands, the gift makes sense - a reward for years of hard work, a challenge to make the farm even more successful. But the youngest, Caroline, a Des Moines lawyer, flatly rejects the idea, and in anger her father cuts her out - setting off an explosive series of events that will leave none of them unchanged. A classic story of contemporary American life, A Thousand Acres strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a father, a daughter, a family A magnificent novel of fourteenth-century Greenland, here is a rich and fascinating detail about the day-to-day lives--the joys and innumerble hardships--of a remarkable people. It is also the compelling story of one family--the proud land-owner Asgeir Gunnarsson, his daughter Margret, whose willfull independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile, and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Echoing the simple power of the old Norse sagas, here is a novel that brings a remote civilization to life--and shows how it was very like our own In Ordinary love, a mother explores her tentative relationship with her five grown children on the return of one of her twin boys from two years in India. After she reveals to them information about the brief affair that caused the collapse of her marriage to their father 20 years earlier, and her loss of custody, they tell heartbreaking details of their years without her. In Good will, the careful, totally "organic" lifestyle of a rural couple disintegrates before their eyes when their seven-year-old son confronts the "real world" at school, with anguishing results New Jersey realtor Joe Stratford is 40 years old, divorced, and ready for a fresh start. Enter Marcus Burns, a former IRS agent who believes the old rules are meant to be broken. Marcus is enthusiastic about his get-rich-quick plans, but are they the right plans for Joe? And why is the local savings and loan so eager to lend Joe and Marcus the money they need to complete a huge feal estate transaction? The Pulitzer Prize-winning author celebrates the art of fiction and the pleasures of reading as she looks at one hundred very different examples of the novel, ranging from the classics to little-known gems and from the Tale of Genji to Zadie Smith's White Teeth, discussing the evolution of the novel, the practice of novel-writing, and the publication process. Reprint. 25,000 first printing. In this collection of five short stories and one novella, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres presents a contemplation of the sometimes mutually exclusive matters of love, friendship, and marriage. Reprint. 12,500 first printing. In "Ordinary Love" Rachel contemplates the last two decades and the remarkable fact of her children's survival. In "Good will" Bob and his life style are no bulwark against the effect his isolation begins to have on his family. Emerging from an ugly divorce in the early 1980s, real estate salesman Joe Stratford is reluctant to join his friend Marcus in a get-rich-quick scheme and wonders about the advances of a free-spirited married woman Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Thousand Acres, " returns with a luminous novella and stories about the vicissitudes of love, friendship, and marriage Dark truths and long-suppressed emotions come to the surface in 1979 when a successful Iowa farmer decides to cut one of his daughters out of his will