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Kent Haruf

Born: February 24, 1943 in Pueblo, Colorado
Died: November 30, 2014, Salida, Colorado

Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Haruf lived in Murphysboro and retired from teaching at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Biography: Before becoming a writer, Kent Haruf worked in many places, including a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Denver, a hospital in Phoenix, a presidential library in Iowa, an alternative high school in Wisconsin and as an English teacher with the Peace Corps in Turkey. From 1986 - 1991, he was an assistant professor at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska and an associate professor at Southern Illinois Universtiy in Carbondale, Illinois from 1991- 2000.


Awards:
  • '''''The Tie That Binds'''''
  • -- Whiting Award for Fiction, 1986
  • -- Citation, Pen/Hemingway Foundation '''''Plainsong'''''
  • -- Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award
  • -- Maria Thomas Award in Fiction
  • -- Finalist, National Book Award, 1999
  • -- Finalist, Los Angeles Times B

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kentharuf/
Kent Haruf on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=kent+haruf


Selected Titles

  Benediction :
ISBN: 038536363X OCLC: 795758151

Random House Audio ; New York : ℗2013.

When Dad Lewis is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he and his wife, Mary, must work together to make his final days as comfortable as possible. Their daughter, Lorraine, hastens back from Denver to help look after him; her devotion softens the bitter absence of their estranged son, Frank, but this cannot be willed away and remains a palpable presence for all three of them. Next door, a young girl named Alice moves in with her grandmother and contends with her own painful memories.

  Eventide
ISBN: 9781415945414 OCLC: 190790602

Books on Tape, [New York, N.Y.] : 2007.

When the McPheron brothers see Victoria Roubideaux, the single mother they'd taken in, move from their ranch to begin college, an emptiness opens before them and for many other townspeople it also promises to be a long, hard winter. A young boy living alone with his grandfather helps out a neighbor whose husband, off in Alaska, suddenly isn't coming home, leaving her to raise their two daughters. At school the children of a disabled couple suffer indignities that their parents know all too well in their own lives, with only a social worker to look after them and a violent relative to endanger them further. But in a small town a great many people encounter one another frequently, often surprisingly, and destinies soon become entwined.

Eventide :
ISBN: 9781743284070 OCLC: 289078398

Alfred A. Knopf, New York : 2004.

When the McPheron brothers see Victoria Roubideaux, the single mother they'd taken in, move from their ranch to begin college, an emptiness opens before them -- and for many other townspeople it also promises to be a long, hard winter. A young boy living alone with his grandfather helps out a neighbor whose husband, off in Alaska, suddenly isn't coming home, leaving her to raise their two daughters. At school the children of a disabled couple suffer indignities that their parents know all too well in their own lives, with only a social worker to look after them and a violent relative to endanger them further. But in a small town a great many people encounter one another frequently, often surprisingly, and destinies soon become entwined -- for good and for ill -- as they confront events that sorely test the limits of their resilience and means, with no refuge available except what their own character and that of others afford them.

Eventide :
ISBN: 0330433725 OCLC: 318942648

Picador, London : 2004.

When the McPheron brothers see Victoria Roubideaux, the single mother they'd taken in, move from their ranch to begin college, an emptiness opens before them and for many other townspeople it also promises to be a long, hard winter.

  Our souls at night
ISBN: 9781509854110 OCLC: 1005183904

Addie Moore and Louis Waters have been neighbours for years. Now they both live alone, their houses empty of family, their quiet nights solitary. Then one evening Addie pays Louis a visit.

Our souls at night /
ISBN: 1101875895 OCLC: 898273147

In Holt, Colorado, widower Louis Waters is initially thrown when the widowed Addie Moore suggests that they spend time together, in bed, to stave off loneliness. "No, not sex," she clarifies. "I'm talking about getting through the night. And lying warm in bed, companionably." Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with.

Plainsong
ISBN: 9781447289524 OCLC: 952663561

  Plainsong /
ISBN: 0330393146 OCLC: 233703432

Vintage Books, New York : [2001]

"Ambitious, but never seeming so, Kent Haruf reveals a whole community as he interweaves the stories of a pregnant high school girl, a lonely teacher, a pair of boys abandoned by their mother, and a couple of crusty bachelor farmers. From simple elements, Haruf achieves a novel of wisdom and grace--a narrative that builds in strength and feeling until, as in a choral chant, the voices in the book surround, transport, and lift the reader off the ground."--THE CITATION FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDFrom the Trade Paperback edition.

The tie that binds
ISBN: 9781509822379 OCLC: 970602894

The tie that binds /
ISBN: 0330490451 OCLC: 59452155

Picador, London : 2002.

Edith Goodenough, the courageous daughter of Colorado homesteaders, finds herself bound by duty, love, and obligation to her crippled father and, by strength and determination, learns to live within the constraints of that responsibility.

West of last chance
ISBN: 9780393065725 OCLC: 123912661

W.W. Norton & Co., New York : ©2008.

Photographs and text reflecting the land, life, and people of the Great Plains of Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, Oklahoma and Texas.

  Where you once belonged
ISBN: 9780525497004 OCLC: 992972364

In Where You Once Belonged, the bestselling and award-winning novelist of Eventide, Kent Haruf tells of a small-town hero who is dealt an enviable hand--and cheats with all of the cards. Deftly plotted, defiantly honest, Where You Once Belonged sings the song of a wounded prairie community in a narrative with the earmarks of a modern American classic. In prose as lean and supple as a spring switch, Haruf describes a high school football star who wins the heart of the loveliest girl in the county and the admiration of men twice his age. Fun-loving, independent, Burdette engages in the occasional prank. But when he turns into a man, his high jinks turn into crimes--with unspeakable consequences. Now, eight years later, Burdette has returned to commit his greatest trespass of all. And the people of Holt may not be able to stop him.

Where you once belonged :
ISBN: 033049046X OCLC: 62759253

Picador, London : 2004.

Former high-school football hero Jack Burdette returns to his hometown eight years after he had left, but his one-time pranks and high-spirited high jinks have turned into crimes--with terrifying consequences for the people of Holt County.

 

 

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