Mary's Place
A Novel
by Charlotte Hinger
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Pub Date Jul 01 2024 | Archive Date Jun 30 2024
University of Nebraska Press | Bison Books
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Description
Bank president J.C. Espy had never done anything crooked in his life until the FDIC changed the rules for agricultural loans. After becoming desperate to save his hundred-year-old bank, he worries that his resulting choice will cause his friend Iron to lose his land. Frantically J.C. works to convince Iron he will lose everything if he doesn’t comply with the new standards. In the meantime, both Iron and J.C. must negotiate with sons who have contempt for their fathers’ old-fashioned values. While Iron agonizes, Mary maneuvers to keep the family together and save the farm.
Mary’s Place is an unforgettable tribute to the rural families who weathered one of the worst agricultural disasters in American history.
Advance Praise
“A fresh look at the Wild West—1980s style—pitting a Kansas farming family against bankers, weather, governmental bureaucracy, the FDIC, and each other. Charlotte Hinger writes with passion and authority, telling a poignant story that is unpredictable, powerful, and terribly real.”—Johnny D. Boggs, nine-time Spur Award–winning author
“Mary’s Place is a riveting, powerful novel, confidently twisty, that pits a beleaguered old banker against his lifelong friend.”—Kathleen O’Neal Gear, New York Times best-selling author of The Ice Orphan
“I was caught up with the real and powerful characters in Mary’s Place and teared up at threats they might lose their farm. Then teared up again when something right and wonderful took place. I loved this book.”—Irene Bennett Brown, award-winning author of the Nickel Hill series
“What happens when a national farm crisis falls on the heads of a troubled farm family? As told in this beautifully crafted, compelling novel, the calamity produces panic, hostility, self-doubt, and betrayal, but it also spawns startling outbursts of courage, self-sacrifice, and grit. . . . Charlotte Hinger gives us a universal tale of human frailty and the struggle for virtue contained within a single family’s fight to survive.”—Richard Edwards, coauthor of The First Migrants: How Black Homesteaders’ Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America’s Great Migration
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781496238054 |
| PRICE | $24.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 306 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
sara a, Reviewer
This is simply one of the best books I have ever read. It has everything - sense of place, character description, twists and turns, hope, despair, more hope and more despair. Community, friendship, family.... and a story that you can't let go of until you've finished the last page and even more. I was totally immersed and I felt I was there for every minute of it. Kudos to the author for such a gripping tale.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I absolutely loved it and it will stay with me for a very long time.
Donna K, Librarian
I really feel that this book is going to emerge as a hidden gem. If you are a farmer; if you are a farmer's wife; if you grew up on a farm; if you wanted to grow up on a farm; if you live in a rural community where farming is its backbone, you're going to want to read this book.
The setting is rural Kansas. It's the 1980s when new requirements for agricultural loans became mandatory. The old fashioned handshake for a man's word was no longer the standard. Compliances with government programs became the must.
The Barretts (Iron and Mary) married when they were 17, raised three children, now own over 3,000 acres, and are known as rural royalty in their small Kansas town. The new rating for agricultural loans turns their lives, their family's lives, and their farm upside down.
The novel pits a small town bank president against his lifelong friend. It also illustrates a generational struggle with fathers and sons (for both the farmer and the banker). It's a tribute to rural families who weathered agricultural disasters. It's real and relevant, and the author (who is also a historian) does an excellent job of making her characters jump off of the page.
This novel releases July 1, 2024. If you grew up on or near a farming community, I think you'd like it. I took a chance on requesting this from NetGalley because unlike many I request, this one only had one previous reader with one review (which was a 5 star). I am interested to see how its reviews increase as it becomes closer to publication and after its release. I am rating it 4.5.
I liked the way the author was so knowledgeable and had done so much research on her topic. She was able to explain the restrictions and implications of the constraints imposed on the families due to the new regulations by the FDIC. She had been a member on the Interfaith Rural Life Committee of Western Kansas, so she used that insight and included it in the book. Her husband owned a livestock truckline and had a large loan at a failed back that fell under the FDIC. That also gave great insight for her topic and plot. She interviewed several bankers and had a small town Kansas retired bank president vet her material. All of this understanding and perception added in Hinger's story and the reader's ability to comprehend the farmers' extreme times. The author's plotline of the son and the new bank officers really piqued interest in the book. also, giving it dual antagonists.
Thank you, NetGalley and Bison Books for the opportunity to preview this novel uncovering an important part of rural, American history.
