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“In this novel of stunning beauty, Anna Keesey gives us the American West at the turn of the century and a cast of unforgettable characters who will risk anything to tame it. Oregon’s hardscrabble frontier comes utterly alive for us, and in prose so lovely, spot-on, and accomplished, I found myself dog-earing nearly every page. An incredible debut—and a writer to watch.”
— Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife
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“‘One place understood helps us understand all other places better,’ Eudora Welty once said, and such is the case in this outstanding debut. Anna Keesey renders Little Century’s time and place marvelously, but the novel’s concerns are timeless and universal. With its beautiful language, memorable characters, and compelling story, Little Century is sure to gain a wide and appreciative audience.”
— Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of Serena
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“Dwindling resources, bribery, and corruption—issues as current as this morning’s newspaper—mix with optimism in Little Century, Anna Keesey’s briskly romantic, nontraditional Western…It’s Willa Cather with a sense of humor…Keesey portrays her men and women as deeply flawed but so achingly vulnerable that it is impossible not to identify with them.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine
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“Little Century is rich and true and achingly beautiful. Its heroine, Esther Chambers, is the kind found in the best of classic literature: an innocent caught against the backdrop of escalating violence, whose essential goodness and loyalty shines through the savagery around her.”
— Kathleen Kent, bestselling author of The Heretic’s Daughter
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“Keesey debuts with a confidently energetic tale…While Keesey offers a variety of characters with intriguing stories of their own, it is the richly depicted setting—from desert to dry good store—that showcases her talent.”
— Publishers Weekly
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“Highly entertaining reading. First novelist Keesey has produced a top-notch novel of Western Americana.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
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“Keesey writes lyrically and examines the ferocity of frontier life with an unromantic and penetrating gaze.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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“Here is a fine novel, written with grace, about the settling of Oregon and the evening redness in the West. In the desert town of Century, haunted by Indian blood and barren to the core, the cattlemen hate the shepherds and the shepherds hate the cattlemen. But as the community is about to consume itself with greed and vengeance, a young orphan from Chicago shows up with a moral clarity that outstrips her age, to remind us that character matters and that justice is pursuant to conscience. Little Century is a frontier saga, a love story, and an epic of many small pleasures.”
— Joshua Ferris, author of Then We Came to the End
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“Anna Keesey conjures her Western landscape of ranches and homesteads with painterly richness, but it’s her uncanny historical imagination that really takes the breath away. Her characters pulse with life; their times feel as immediate, as urgent and vital, as our own.”
— Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl
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“This is a beautiful and completely absorbing book. In spare, luminous prose, Keesey perfectly conjures the textures, characters, and urgency of life in Century. I read it at a gallop and didn’t want it to end.”
— Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles
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“Anna Keesey’s debut novel is historical fiction at its finest—precise and particular in detail, character, and setting, yet vast and epic in scope and theme. Little Century is a remarkable achievement.”
— Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948