Introduction

Thirty years of browbeating from rancher Bud Smalls has penned his wife, Leah, into emotional isolation. Now Bud is gone and Leah owns the ranch, but there is no help forthcoming from Bud's brothers who want to force her out and take the ranch for themselves. When their attempt to humiliate her instead becomes her opportunity to succeed, Leah begins to find her way back to herself and learns how much she can gain by opening her heart. The Widow Smalls is just one of the stories in this collection by the WILLA Award winning author of Unbroken, Jamie Lisa Forbes, who writes about the hardships of making a living from the land with an understanding that comes from first-hand experience. Her deftly drawn characters include star-crossed lovers, a young rancher facing his first test of moral courage, an inscrutable ranch hand claiming an impressive relative, a father making one last grasp for his daughter's love and a child's struggle to make sense of the world around her. Each will pull readers into the middle of their stories and keep them turning the pages.

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Excerpt

I.

The thud of gravel battering the coffin made her jump. Leah glanced back at the Hanson boy to see if he’d noticed. She was embarrassed by her reaction—the squeamishness of it. After all, she’d been watching the backhoe ever since the mourners had dribbled away. The boy had warned her. He’d suggested she might want to follow the others, but she’d brushed him off. She would be just fine, thank you. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Should Roy Carlton (“Ramona Dietz”) get as much reader sympathy as Leah Smalls (“The Widow Smalls”)? Why or why not?

2. Child characters appear in 3 stories, “Lincoln’s Nephew,” “His Mild Yoke” and “The Good War.” How are the children changed by what happens to them? Or are they changed at all?

3. Are these stories separate stories? Or are they all perspectives on a larger theme?

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