Publisher Description
Brother and sister Jerry and Daisy Lou Malone leave behind their provincial Midwestern upbringing to test their mettle in the big, beckoning world of 1920s America. For Jerry, the future lies west, with like-minded pioneer souls keen to play the “land game” as homesteaders on the Great Plains. Daisy, in turn, heads for the lights and luxe life of New York City, hoping to sing her way to stardom.
But fate and failing fortunes reunite them in tiny Shelby, Montana—and draw them into the 1923 Dempsey-Gibbons World Heavyweight Championship, the faltering town’s grand scheme to save itself from economic ruin. And for a moment as fleeting and spectacular as Halley’s Comet, these American dreamers will savor the sweet taste of an extraordinary life.
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About Deirdre McNamer
Deirdre McNamer is the author of several novels, including Red Rover, which won the Montana Book Award and was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Artforum. Her essays, short fiction, and reviews have appeared in the New Yorker, Ploughshares, the New York Times, and Outside, among other venues. She has served as a chairperson of National Book Awards and as a judge for the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award. She has taught writing at Cornell University, Williams College, the University of Ohio, the University of Oregon, the University of Alabama, the University of Montana, and the Bennington Writing Seminars, where she currently holds a faculty position.
About the Narrators
Joyce Bean is an accomplished audiobook narrator and director. In addition to having won several AudioFile Earphones Awards, she has been nominated multiple times for the prestigious Audie Award. Equally adept at narrating fiction and nonfiction, and she also narrates audiobooks under the name Jane Brown.
Nancy Pearl is known as “America’s Librarian.” She speaks about the pleasures of reading at library conferences and to literacy organizations and community groups throughout the world. She hosts a monthly television show, Book Lust with Nancy Pearl, and comments on books regularly on NPR’s Morning Edition. She won the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Foundation. Among her many other honors are the 2004 Women’s National Book Association Award, the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal, and the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. She received a master’s degree in library science in 1967 from the University of Michigan and an MA degree in history from Oklahoma State University in 1977.