Kimberly Olson Fakih

"A lively and energetic account of growing up in the Midwest in the last century, in a variegated family assailed by disasters great and small." -Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Truthtelling In the tradition of Mad Men and Rick Moody's The Ice Storm, Little Miseries captures an era of parental indifference, in which children were left to grow up on their own through tiny moments that both chipped away at their innocence and added to their resilience. ...

"Set in Iowa and Minnesota in the 60s and 70s, Little Miseries is a Midwestern Gothic where sometimes the misery is just that--little--and sometimes it is epic and yawning, capable of swallowing every childhood memory. There are the miseries the Castles will talk about--old family lore about a great, great, great uncle who was split in two while connecting railroad cars--and the misery none of them will face. There are days at the lake, placid except...

When Trapp's family plans to move from Iowa to New York City, she stays behind on her great-grandparents' farm for the summer and discovers some family secrets that make it easier for her to leave the life she has always known.