Gail Anderson-Dargatz's evocative novel of one woman's simple but passionately lived life reminds of us of the pleasure to be found in human contact and simple, natural things.
Raised by her silent but companionable father and a mother who kept bees, headstrong Augusta marries shy, deferential Karl, twelve years her senior, and goes to live with him on his father's remote farm. Terrified that she will literally die from loneliness and isolation,...

Wang Lang, a simple peasant farmer takes as a wife a battered slave girl who becomes a indomitable, loyal woman. Working the land together they prosper and increase their holdings, yet Wang eventually betrays his family and neglects the earth he had worshipped.

In a small village in India, a simple peasant woman recalls her life as a child bride, a farmer's wife, and a devoted mother amidst fights to meet changing times, poverty, and disaster.

"In her first life, Ida Russell had been a painter. Five years ago, she had confidently walked the halls of Boston's most renowned Museum School, enrolling in art courses that were once deemed "unthinkable" for women, and showing a budding talent for watercolors. But no more. Ida Russell is now Ida Pease, resident of a seaside farm on Vineyard Haven, and wife to Ezra, a once-charming man who has become an inattentive and unreliable husband. Ezra runs...