Black Soil

1930. A novel concerning an Irish family farming in northwest Iowa. The book begins: Direction?...There was no direction. The prairie stretched to the end of the world. Nell Connor, seated on a high wagon, swayed with the motion of the ox team and closed her eyes. Would there be, perhaps, some change in this scene when she looked again? No. No change. She became insensible to the prattle of Tim and the children, and listened to Dutch Fred as he directed his oxen. Gee-e. Haw! Haw! Ha-! On, on toward an elusive horizon. Did that driver with the long, bushy beard and kind gray eyes really know of a destination? Where was he taking the Connor family? Why had Tim selected land so far, far from any signs of life? It was hours, days, since the railroad terminal-the last connection with civilization-had been swallowed in those palpitating grasses.