Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf; Knopf, 2015. 179 pages; $24.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult.
This tale begins the day Addie Moore (a 70-year-old widow) approaches Louis Waters (a 70-year-old widower) with a proposition: would he like to come to her house and sleep beside her each night, just to talk and ease the loneliness of the dark? Louis is startled (he doesn’t know Addie well) but agrees. Their nighttime rendezvous spill into the daylight hours. The small town of Holt, Colorado notices. Louis’s daughter and Addie’s son notice. Addie’s grandson unexpectedly comes to stay with her for the summer (and doesn’t seem to notice!). And suddenly the most ordinary cast of characters is embroiled in a tense drama. Haruf wrote this brief masterpiece in the weeks before he died of lung disease. It’s a sort of final letter from one about to step into the unknown, which gives added weight to the themes of relationships, late-realized dreams, and the seizing of the joyful bits of life whenever they happen to appear.
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Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge, Author
Biography | View
- Just Fine They Way They Are (Calkins Creek, March 1, 2011)
- The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton (Clarion Books, 2010)
- Thank You Very Much, Captain Ericsson! (Holiday House, 2005; Berndtsdotter Books, 2012)
- When Esther Morris Headed West (Holiday House, 2001)
- The Legend of Strap Buckner (Holiday House, 2001)
- Wicked Jack (Holiday House, 1995)
Speaker / Presenter
Connie is an experienced speaker and presenter who enjoys sharing her passion for writing and her experience as a writer with readers and writers of all ages. She has presented to students, community, civic and professional organizations, writing groups, library audiences, and seniors – wherever book lovers gather!
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