Benediction - Softcover

"His finest-tuned tale yet. . . . There is a deep, satisfying music to this book, as Haruf weaves between such a large cast of characters in so small a space. . . . Strangely, wonderfully, the moment of a man's passing can be a blessing in the way it brings people together. "Benediction" recreates this powerful moment so gracefully it is easy to forget that, like [the town of] Holt, it is a world created by one man." --John Freeman, "The Boston Globe" "Haruf is the master of what one of his characters calls 'the precious ordinary'. . . . With understated language and startling emotional insight, he makes you feel awe at even the most basic of human gestures." --Ben Goldstein, "Esquire" "Grace and restraint are abiding virtues in Haruf's fiction, and they resume their place of privilege in his new work. . . . For readers looking for the rewards of an intimate, meditative story, it is indeed a blessing." --Karen R. Long, "The Cleveland Plain Dealer" "Haruf is maguslike in his gifts. . . to illuminate the inevitable ways in which tributary lives meander toward confluence. . . . Perhaps not since Hemingway has an American author triggered such reader empathy with so little reliance on the subjectivity of his characters. . . . [This] is a modestly wrought wonder from one of our finest living writers." --Bruce Machart, "The Houston Chronicle" "As Haruf's precise details accrue, a reader gains perspective: This is the story of a man's life, and the town where he spent it, and the people who try to ease its end. . . . His sentences have the elegance of Hemingway's early work [and his] determined realism, which admits that not all of our past actions or the reasons behind them are knowable, even to ourselves, is one of the book's satisfactions." --John Reimringer, "The Minneapolis Star-Tribune" "We've waited a long time for an invitation back to Holt, home to Kent Haruf's novels. . . He may be the most muted master in American fiction [and]

Following the astonishing Plainsong and Eventide, this is Kent Haruf's third novel set in the imaginary landscape of Holt, Colorado.