Our souls at night
(Book - Large Print)

Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to her neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have long been aware of each other, if not exactly friends; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter, Holly, lives hours away in Colorado Springs; her son, Gene, even farther away in Grand Junction. What Addie has come to ask -- since she and Louis have been living alone for so long in houses now empty of family, and the nights are so terribly lonely -- is whether he might be willing to spend them with her, in her bed, so they can have someone to talk with. This unusual arrangement, as Addie predicted, provokes local comment. Then, their nightly pattern is disrupted when her son, whose wife has departed for California, asks Addie to take in his six-year-old son, Jamie, for the summer while he tries to solve his various troubles. Jamie is confused and hurt, but gradually finds comfort in the company of his grandmother and her friend Louis, neither of whom has spent much time with kids in years. They teach the boy to play catch and adopt a dog from the local shelter. They take a camping trip to the mountains and a trip to the county fair, enjoying simple pleasures that are a hallmark of Haruf's fiction. This is an eloquent, bittersweet and inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future.