The characters in this story were interesting. However, there were several story lines, and many were never resolved or seemed unnecessary to the overall plot. The story seemed to just stop rather than being finished.

The ending sort of left you "hanging" without any real conclusion or summary of the characters.

In the town of Holt, Colorado, a father and his two boys cope with his depressed wife living in bed and then moving out. An elderly woman reaches out to the two boys while they work on their paper route. A pregnant girl is kicked out of her mother's house and turns to a teacher for help. Two gruff brothers live outside town limits working hard raising cattle. The story runs about nine months, weaving in and out of the various lives of these characters as they have joys and sorrows, heartbreak and love. It's a meandering, melancholy tale but it's not overly sad or depressing either. I especially loved the relationships that developed between the pregnant girl, Victoria, and the people who cared for her after her mother threw her out of the house.

The book has a "soap opera" feel to it. The characters are interesting.

This is a very quiet, simple book. It is about real people, both adults and children, who have been abandoned in some way. They find help and solace in each other.

Such a delightful, beautifully written book. Haruf is one of my favorite authors. His stories always bring to life the everyday events of small town life and make the characters come alive in a very real way.