Book
Stay and fight
Call Number
- FICTION FFIT (CEN, OSH)
Edition
First edition.
Publication Information
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.
Physical Description
292 pages ; 24 cm.
Summary
Helen arrives in Appalachian Ohio full of love and her boyfriend?s ideas for living off the land. Too soon, with winter coming, he calls it quits. Helped by Rudy--her government-questioning, wisdom-spouting, seasonal-affective-disordered boss--and a neighbor couple, Helen makes it to spring. Those neighbors, Karen and Lily, are awaiting the arrival of their first child, a boy, which means their time at the Women?s Land Trust must end. So Helen invites the new family to throw in with her--they?ll split the work and the food, build a house, and make a life that sustains them, if barely, for years. Then young Perley decides he wants to go to school. And Rudy sets up a fruit-tree nursery on the pipeline easement edging their land. The outside world is brought clamoring into their makeshift family. Set in a region known for its independent spirit, Stay and Fight shakes up what it means to be a family, to live well, to make peace with nature and make deals with the system. It is a protest novel that challenges our notions of effective action. It is a family novel that refuses to limit the term. And it is a marvel of storytelling that both breaks with tradition and celebrates it. Best of all, it is full of flawed, cantankerous, flesh-and-blood characters who remind us that conflict isn't the end of love, but the real beginning.