It is set in a small town in Colorado. Holt is surrounded by plains and the story reflects this, it is open and isolated simultaneously. Haruf's prose is pared down, long sentences but simple, with feeling and a particular sense of place even in the way he writes and the people he speaks for.
The core story is that of Dad Lewis and his family. Dad is dying, his wife and daughter are caring for him. There is a son who they don't hear from anymore. A girl just moved into the house next door to live with her grandmother as her mother has died and there are the Johnson women, a mother and daughter, and the story of the preacher and his family.
Benediction is a book you read and then think, yes that is how it seems to be, but overwhelmingly, it will be ok, and there will be something or someone, and maybe it is all just healing. You just can't convey some things in a sentence. But Benediction shows, for me, exactly what novels are for.
Thank you very much Picador for the proof.
