Eventide

Kent Haruf

11 April 2013
9781447240457
336 pages

Synopsis

Following the astonishing Plainsong, Eventide is Kent Haruf's second novel set in his imaginary landscape of Holt, Colorado.

Harold and Raymond McPheron are finally waving goodbye to their beloved Victoria, a young mother with a first chance at an education. Betty and Luther Wallace are struggling to keep their heads above water and their children out of care, and in the same town young friends Dena and DJ find solace away from their own troubled homes. As these stories unfold and entwine, tragedy strikes the McPheron household and life is thrown irrevocably off course.

Heart-breaking yet hopeful, Kent Haruf's Eventide is an unflinching depiction of the hardships of small-town life, lit up by astonishing moments of redemption.

Possesses the haunting appeal of music, the folksy rhythms of an American tale and the lovely, measured grace of an old hymn.
Wonderful . . . peopled with individuals whose ordinary lives are invested with epic quality and truth.
This is a novel that succeeds in affirming life without ducking its hardships.