Sweet Land Of Story

Thirty-six true, tall, and traditional tales, primarily from the nineteenth century or earlier, selected by a professional storyteller and divided by the region of the United States from which they originated.

In this paperback original, a stable of fresh stories by award-winning writer Will Weaver (Full Service and Barns of Minnesota, are complemented by a hand-picked selection of favorites from his original collection, A Gravestone Made of Wheat, to offer a fresh, vivid portrait of the changing midwestern landscape. New highlights include "Blaze of Glory," an enchanting tale of an RV road trip and a senior couple's "last time"; "The Trapper," the story of a hard split between an old trapper and a younger female environmentalist; and "The Last Farmer," the capstone story of this elegant collection that examines the discovery by a high-tech farmer of the history of the old houses on his land. Fourteen stories in all portray the bountiful and whimsical and cruel human spirit and the swirling transformation of America's heartland.

The epic tale of an endangered Newfoundland community and the struggles of one man determined to resist its extinction. The scarcely populated town of Sweetland clings to the shore of a remote Canadian island. Its slow decline has finally reached a head, with the mainland government offering each islander a generous resettlement package— the only stipulation being that everyone must leave. Fierce and enigmatic Moses Sweetland, whose ancestors founded the island, is determined to refuse. As one by one his neighbors relent, he recalls the town’s rugged history and its eccentric cast of characters. For fans of The Shipping News, Michael Crummey’s prose conjures up the mythical, sublime world of Sweetland’s past amid a storm-battered landscape haunted by local lore. In a spare style that belies “huge emotional depth and heart” (Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You), Crummey masterfully weaves together the past and present, creating in Sweetland a spectacular portrait of one man’s battle to survive as his world vanishes around him. Winner of Newfoundland Book Award Short-listed for the Governor’s General Award Winner of the CBC Bookie Award for Fiction Finalist for the Winterset Prize

The changing midwest as captured in new stories and select favorites by award-winning writer Will Weaver

An assortment of short fiction ranges across America, from Alaska to the District of Columbia, as it explores the complexities of modern life in such stories as "Jolene: a Life," "A House on the Plains," "Baby Wilson," and "Walter John Harmon."

Sweet Land of Liberty is Thomas J. Sugrue’s epic account of the abiding quest for racial equality in states from Illinois to New York, and of how the intense northern struggle differed from and was inspired by the fight down South. Sugrue’s panoramic view sweeps from the 1920s to the present–more than eighty of the most decisive years in American history. He uncovers the forgotten stories of battles to open up lunch counters, beaches, and movie theaters in the North; the untold history of struggles against Jim Crow schools in northern towns; the dramatic story of racial conflict in northern cities and suburbs; and the long and tangled histories of integration and black power. Filled with unforgettable characters and riveting incidents, and making use of information and accounts both public and private, such as the writings of obscure African American journalists and the records of civil rights and black power groups, Sweet Land of Liberty creates an indelible history.

A dozen stories deal with a heartbroken widower, hunters, farmers and truck drivers living in Minnesota.

They call it a civil war, but there is nothing civil in this. Nothing civil at all. They came from Damascus, from Halab, from Banias where the bombs fall day and night and the wounded children look like sleeping angels. Now they live in camps and abandoned buildings in Lebanon or Jordan. Now Syria is just a distant memory, a home forever lost. This urgent and extraordinary play explores the crisis in Syria through the stories of its two million refugees. Oh My Sweet Land received its UK premiere at the Young Vic Theatre, London, on 9 April 2014.