Vermont author Catherine Tudish wrote her first book several years ago, a collection of short stories called Tenney’s Landing .
The stories wove together the daily lives of people in a fictional Pennsylvania small town.
Now, Tudish revisits Tenney’s Landing in her debut novel, American Cream .
The book focuses on a woman named Virginia, who, in midlife, has to leave her suburban surroundings.
She returns to Tenney’s Landing to take care of the family farm.
Virginia begins to recognize how deep her connection to the land runs, and she questions who she has become.
Like Tudish’s book of short stories, American Cream is a quiet tribute to small town life, and to the ties that bind.
Catherine Tudish lives in Strafford, Vermont and teaches at Dartmouth College. She spoke with VPR’s Neal Charnoff about her new book.