Main-Travelled Roads

A powerful cycle of stories set against the endless wheat fields and dusty roads of late-nineteenth-century Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Dakotas. Here a Union soldier trudges home to a wife who has kept the farm alive alone; a successful playwright returns to his impoverished brother’s farm, only to be met with bitter resentment; a young woman escapes an arranged marriage by fleeing with a hired hand; and a tenant farmer watches his hopes crumble under a relentless landlord. Through these interconnected lives, Hamlin Garland paints an unflinching yet deeply compassionate portrait of the grit, grief, and quiet triumphs of the people who built America’s heartland. This modern retelling preserves the original’s raw honesty and emotional depth while making the language fresh and immediate for contemporary readers. Part of Timeless Classics.