Raintree County

This “classic” (The Boston Globe) is “a work that should rank with Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel as a landmark in American fiction” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Performed by a narrator “who seems to understand the book perfectly” (AudioFile).

Throughout a single day in 1892, John Shawnessy recalls the great moments of his life; from the love affairs of his youth in Indiana, to the battles of the Civil War, to the politics of the Gilded Age, to his homecoming as school teacher, husband, and father. Shawnessy is the epitome of the place and period in which he lives, a rural land of springlike women & shady gamblers, wandering vagabonds & soapbox orators. Yet here on the banks of the Shawmucky River, which weaves its primitive course through Raintree County, Indiana, he also feels and obeys ancient rhythms.

A number-one bestseller when it was first published in 1948, this powerful novel is a compelling vision of 19th-century America with timeless resonance today.

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