Lager Queen Of Minnesota

A story about a grandma, the family who loves her, and the inheritance they are all counting on for their own reasons

By most measures the inheritance is modest, but when Edith Kipling takes control of the last parcel of her parents' land she feels she's won the lottery. She can finally move into an assisted living community, bake rhubarb pies for the neighbors, and no longer share a home with her grandson and his girlfriend. But her children have other ideas: if Edith would just accept her wealthy cousin's offer of $31,000 for the land, she could pass on their rightful share of her family farm's last yield. Even a portion would be a windfall for any of them--facilitating a mortgage payment to keep a home, some Christmas presents for the kids, or a car repair to keep a job. Edith, widow to one of Minnesota's kindest but poorest men, has never owned much of anything, and at last succumbs to a pull that leaves her children, and even herself, longing for financial security. Most of Edith's relatives stop speaking to her, and the family that she took pride in keeping together is torn apart.

When Edith's granddaughter, Diana, the frontwoman of the lauded indie rock band Smarmy Kitten, inherits the farmland, readers wonder if history will repeat itself. Will she do right by her family or think only of herself? Is there a way to give the next generation of Kiplings a head start? Ultimately, the Kiplings' financial situation become a matter of life and death. Who will survive?

J. Ryan Stradal's new novel introduces us to loveable, quintessentially Midwestern characters who are eager to do right in a world where everything is stacked against them. Here, he shows us up close how Midwestern values interact with American notions of class and the value of money. In this deeply affecting, emotional family saga, resolution takes generations, but when it finally comes, we're left surprised and delighted.