The Tie That Binds Audiobook By Kent Haruf cover art

The Tie That Binds

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From the bestselling author of Eventide, The Tie That Binds is a powerfully eloquent tribute to the arduous demands of rural America, and of the tenacity of the human spirit.

Colorado, January 1977. Eighty-year-old Edith Goodnough lies in a hospital bed, IV taped to the back of her hand, police officer at her door. She is charged with murder. The clues: a sack of chicken feed slit with a knife, a milky-eyed dog tied outdoors one cold afternoon. The motives: the brutal business of farming and a family code of ethics as unforgiving as the winter prairie itself. Here, Kent Haruf delivers the sweeping tale of a woman of the American High Plains, as told by her neighbor, Sanders Roscoe. As Roscoe shares what he knows, Edith's tragedies unfold: a childhood of pre-dawn chores, a mother's death, a violence that leaves a father dependent on his children, forever enraged. Here is the story of a woman who sacrifices her happiness in the name of family--and then, in one gesture, reclaims her freedom. Small Town & Rural Women's Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Coming of Age

Critic reviews

"An impressive, expertly crafted work of sensitivity and detail. . . . Powerful." --Los Angeles Times Book Review

"[A] fine first novel that dramatically and accurately explores the lives of people who work the land in the stark American Middle West." --The New York Times Book Review

"Kent Haruf writes so wonderfully. . . . His characters live, and the voice of his narrator reverberates after the last page: humorous, ironic, loving." --The Christian Science Monitor

"Haruf's gifts as a writer go beyond choreography. He has caught his prairie people with the skill of Wright Morris, the prairie itself with the sweeping eye of Willa Cather. . . . [I]t's nearly impossible to believe this is his first novel." --Rocky Mountain News
Beautiful Language • Delicate Observations • Well-read Performance • Noble Character • Powerful Descriptions

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The simplicity and brutality of life on the farm. Reminds me of the generation of farmers in my own family and what they overcame… or didn’t.

Difficult Times

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gravelly breaking voice so devastatingly appropriate to the narrator. among the best I have heard.

stupendous narration

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This was an Amazing Story and an amazing performance. I highly recommend listening to it.

Loved this book!

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This is a very well read performance of a softly-gripping tale told over hot drinks on a spring Sunday in Colorado.

Breakout freshman novel

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Worth the listen. Great narration. Glad I listened to it. Not a usual story as it is told by the neighbor who is her friend.

Sweet Story

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