JANE SMILEY is the author of numerous novels, including A Thousand Acres, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and the Last Hundred Years Trilogy: Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age. She is the author as well of several works of nonfiction and books for young adults. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has also received the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature. She lives in Northern California.

"In this Lidie Newton sequel, narrated in a voice so authentic you're certain she's speaking only to you, Smiley takes us on Lidie's journey from being a young widow in pre-Civil War Kansas to her endeavor to be a free-spirited woman in England. At every turn, we are reminded that Jane Smiley is more than an extraordinary writer--she's a sculptor who carves out unforgettable characters who live and breathe her stories." --Victoria Zackheim, author of The Curtain Falls in Paris and Death Times Seven

"Readers will welcome the chance to spend more time with Lidie, the people she meets, and her incredibly drawn world." --Jane Jorgenson, Library Journal

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Pub date: 2026-04-21

Length: 336 pages