The Floor of the Sky

In the Nebraska Sandhills, nothing is more sacred than the bond of family and landand nothing is more capable of causing deep wounds. In Pamela Carter Joern's riveting novel The Floor of the Sky, Toby Jenkins, an aging widow, is on the verge of losing her family's ranch when her granddaughter Lilaa city girl, sixteen and pregnantshows up for the summer. While facing painful decisions about her future, Lila uncovers festering secrets about her grandmother's pastdiscoveries that spur Toby to reconsider the ambiguous ties she holds to her embittered sister Gertie, her loyal ranch hand George, her not-so-sympathetic daughter Nola Jean, and ultimately, herself. Propelled by stark realism in breakneck prose, The Floor of the Sky reveals the inner worlds of characters isolated by geography and habit. Set against the sweeping changes in rural Americafrom the onslaught of corporate agribusiness to the pressures exerted by superstores on small townsJoern's compelling story bears witness to the fortitude and hard-won wisdom of people whose lives have been forged by devotion to the land.