This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind » (Unabridged)

Ivan Doig is the author of ten previous books, including the novels Prairie Nocturne and Dancing at the Rascal Fair. A former ranch hand, newspaperman, and magazine editor, Doig holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle.

Masterfully crafted with lyrical and haunting language, Doig's memoir remains an enduring classic, a story to be savored by anyone who has ever loved a parent or been shaped by the land around them.

This House of Sky is the moving chronicle of Ivan Doig's youth growing up in Montana. At age six, his mother died, leaving his father, rancher and cowboy, Charlie Doig, and maternal grandmother, the stalwart Bessie Ringer, to raise him. Times were hard; work was difficult; poverty always shadowed them. But drawing on their strong love and gritty determination, they find the strength to withstand these difficult circumstances. They are, Doig reflects, relics of an earlier time and a different lifestyle-uncomplaining, unquestioning, accepting the western land with all its hardships and beauty.