Description: From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Thousand Acres" come the memoirs of Lidie Harkness of Quincy, Illinois, who marries an abolitionist from New England and settles in Kansas in 1855. When her husband is murdered, Lidie vanishes into Missouri to find his killers.
Review Quotes: "Consistently entertaining, filled with action and ideas."--The New York Times Book Review
"Engaging . . . [a] harrowing adventure . . . This picaresque tale presents a series of remarkable characters, particularly in the inexperienced narrator, whose graphic descriptions of travel and domestic life before the Civil War strip away romantic notions of simpler times. . . . Smiley has created an authentic voice in this struggle of a young woman to live simply amid a swirl of deadly antagonism."--The Christian Science Monitor "A fine historical novel that describes a fascinating time and place . . . It is both funny and subtle, rich in ideas . . . Smiley has created a better all-around piece of fiction than any of her previous work."--The Wall Street Journal "Smiley is a writer of rare versatility who travels widely in her creative endeavors. . . . What her new novel shares with all [her past] works is its authorial intelligence."--The Boston Sunday Globe "Jane Smiley is nothing if not protean, a literary ventriloquist of incredible range. . . . This is a novel that manages to combine the evocative storyteller's voice with the moviemaker's sense of drama and visuals, an old-fashioned tale told with contemporary steam and panache."--The Philadelphia Inquirer "Not only is this a rollicking feminist tale of a woman who can handle herself in the thick of the Kansas Wars, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton is also a coming of age story as well as a lasting portrait of the genuinely tumultuous time just before the Civil War."--The Raleigh News & Observer "A tale of love and war, revenge and betrayal, Smiley's fictional memoir invites comparisons with Gone with the Wind, even War and Peace. . . . Lidie Newton has the ring of honesty and truth. It also carries the stamp of its author's historical sense, stylistic verve, and moral passion."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Lidie is an unforgettable character . . . The All-True Travels is a showcase for Smiley's range and dexterity, dead-on in its emotional impact and resonant in the painful truths it conveys."--San Diego Union-Tribune "Rendered in sharply lucid prose and filled with wonderful period detail . . . Lidie's story reads like a long and various dream, brightly colored and brilliantly observed--a journey into a world as troubled, ambiguous, and full of life as our own."--Chicago Tribune "Rousing . . . action-packed . . . A gripping story about love, fortitude, and convictions that are worth fighting for regardless of the outcome. . . . The voice Smiley creates for her sympathetic and wonderfully human heroine is sharp, engaging, wry, and wise."--Los Angeles Times "Like Cold Mountain and Beloved--and with more than a casual nod to Mark Twain--this sprawling saga by the Pulitzer-winning author of A Thousand Acres connects readers to the historical issues of the time."--Glamour