Nebraska native Willa Cather set many of her books - including her second novel, "O Pioneers" - in the Midwest and often touched on themes of immigration, the challenges of the agricultural industry and the struggles of workaday farmers in her novels. The fact that she actually grew up amid the same people whose stories she depicts gave her books an authenticity that made her novels extremely popular. In "O Pioneers," we meet the Bergsons, a family of farmers in the fictional town of Hanover, Nebraska who have emigrated to America from Sweden. When the family patriarch dies, the running of the farm falls to the eldest daughter, Alexandra, who struggles to make the farm viable and provide for the family. Eventually, the focus turns to the romantic entanglements of Alexandra and her brother as well as touching upon the enormous difficulties of running a farm at the turn of the last century. At times funny, touching, tragic and beautiful, "O Pioneers" was a great success when it was first released and the book has been adapted into both a 1992 film and a 2009 opera of the same name. It is presented here in its original and unabridged format.
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