HOMESTEAD
From NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE and FLANNERY O’CONNOR AWARD WINNER Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in Alaska, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders
Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her,
From NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION 5 UNDER 35 HONOREE and FLANNERY O’CONNOR AWARD WINNER Melinda Moustakis, a debut novel set in Alaska, about the turbulent marriage of two unlikely homesteaders
Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her, and a risky bet is better than none at all. But over the next few years, as they work the land in an attempt to secure a deed to their homestead, they must face everything they don’t know about each other. As the Territory of Alaska moves toward statehood and inexorable change, can Marie and Lawrence create something new, or will they break apart trying?
Immersive and wild-hearted, joyfully alive to both the intimate and the elemental, Homestead is an unflinching portrait of a new state and of the hard-fought, hard-bitten work of making a family.
- Flatiron Books
- Hardcover
- February 2023
- 272 Pages
- 9781250845559
Buy the Book
$27.99
About Melinda Moustakis
Melinda Moustakis was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and grew up in California. Her story collection, Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories, won the Flannery O’Connor Award, the Maurice Prize, and was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 selection. Her work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Alaska Quarterly Review, Granta, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere, and has been awarded an O. Henry Prize. She is the recipient of the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, the NEA Literature Fellowship, the Kenyon Review Fellowship, and the Rona Jaffe Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library. Homestead is her debut novel.
Praise
“So good, so precise, so strong, and so deeply felt.” —Jess Walter, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Recommended for fans of Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Moustakis is a writer of singular beauty, whether turning her attention to the Alaskan landscape or the intimate landscape of a marriage. Homestead is a luminous consideration of what it means for something or someone to belong to someone else, and of how fraught and tentative the labor of longing and belonging can be.” —Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections
“I loved this book. The marriage is feral, the child-rearing frost-bitten, the betrayals and redemptions jagged as mountain peaks. In blazing, poetic prose, Moustakis brings 1950s Alaska roaring to life.” —Kawai Strong Washburn, author of Sharks in the Time of Saviors
“To read Homestead is to be swept into the Alaskan wilderness of an early marriage. Both intimate and epic, this novel questions the very meaning of origin and ownership. Moustakis writes with the hunger and heat of a pistol, the coolness of cherry wine and vanilla snow. A gorgeous feat of storytelling.” —Rachel Swearingen, author of How to Walk on Water
Discussion Questions
1. Homestead alternates between Marie and Lawrence’s perspectives. What is the effect of that narrative choice on your reading experience?
2. How do you understand Marie and Lawrence’s decision to get married? What are their expectations of the marriage? How do those expectations hold up once they are actually living together?
3. What do Marie and Lawrence each hope for from the homestead? What does it represent to them?
4. Homestead is structured around the seasons, with each chapter taking place over the course of a month. How do the cycles of a year shape the novel’s form and plot?
5. Discuss Marie’s relationship with her sister, Sheila. How are their lives similar and different, especially their marriages?
6. Why does Lawrence frequently resist physical intimacy withMarie? How does that push and pull affect their relationship?
7. How are Lawrence and Marie affected by their conversations with ShemPete? Compare and contrast their reactions to his perspective. How does Shem’s viewpoint complicate the ideas of homesteading and Alaskan statehood?
8. Lawrence is haunted by his experiences during the Korean War, and compares his night terrors to a swarm of mayflies. What effect did military service have on him? How does it influence his relationship with Marie?
9. Homestead is set in the 1950s, when there were often strict gender norms that shaped one’s place in the world. How do Marie and Lawrence conform to those norms, and how do they thwart them? Were there any aspects of their characterizations that surprised you?
10. When Shem talks about experiencing racism in Anchorage, he refers to a law being passed, which is actually the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in Alaska and the U.S. Discuss instances in the novel where we see racism, exclusion, and prejudice at play. How might those issues continue to echo in Alaska (and across the country) today?
11. Marie and Lawrence were raised in completely different parts of the country by very different families, but they each struggled to feel a sense of belonging. How did their childhoods shape them, and what were they trying to leave behind and gain by moving to Alaska?
12. Over the course of two years, Marie and Lawrence witness the push for Alaskan statehood and are in Anchorage when the official announcement comes through. How are their lives affected by statehood? Discuss the ways in which the political and the domestic are woven together in this novel.
13. Why do you think the author decided to include the full text of the homestead deed in the novel? What was the effect, for you, of reading it? What is its significance to Marie and to Lawrence?
14. Why does Lawrence decide to sign the deed without Marie, despite his promise? Do you sympathize at all with his action?
15. How do you understand Marie’s decision to forgive Lawrence and continue their life together? What do you think the future holds for them?
16. Discuss the portrayal of Alaska in this novel. Did it surprise you or change the way you think about the state? If so, how?