The Road to LaReta

For fans of Orphan Train, Water for Elephants, and The Boys in the Boat comes a novel about the redemptive power of a second chance. Set in the hardscrabble Dakotas during the depths of the Depression, one man's life is changed forever because of a three-year-old girl.

In 1939, a Cat Skinner drives an old beat up Chevy from Nebraska to North Dakota. The trip takes three days and covers 900 miles. Webb Bateman is the Cat Skinner, a heavy equipment operator, whose story is not about the earth he moves, but about his journey to attempt redemption. As a young man, in the 1920's and early 30's, Webb's skills are honed behind a pool cue stick, at the end of a fist, behind a plow, in a traveling circus, and in the belly of a coal mine. He marries in 1935 because he believes it's the right thing to do when Dorothy, a rural school teacher who loves to dance and who loves Webb, gets pregnant. A thirst for poker, booze and a nomadic lifestyle keeps Webb on the move and away from his wife and child, LaReta, until the day a telegram arrives in Nebraska. Dorothy is dead and her funeral is in three days. The journey to North Dakota gives Webb time to reflect on his 27 years of life. It's too much time and not enough time to grapple with the man he is and the man he wants to be.