Iowa Stories

Years ago, Michelle Hoover discovered fifteen poorly-typed pages. Written during the last year of her great-grandmother’s life, they preserved the story of seventy years of hardship and loss on her family’s Iowa farm. The account eventually formed the basis of Hoover's first novel, The Quickening. "I consider the novel a restoration--a successful pursuit of what otherwise might have vanished," she says.

“Michelle Hoover’s fine debut novel recreates for us a way of life and a set of personalities that have vanished from our current scene, and she does so with a solidity of detail that will impress these people and these places forever on your memory.”--Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love

Based on her great-grandmother’s account and family oral histories, Michelle Hoover’s novel The Quickening tells the epic story of a bitter feud between two Iowa farming families--a feud lasting forty years, through two World Wars and the Great Depression. It is a story of survival and hardship, violence and betrayal, and the discovery and loss of lifelong love.

“I grew up among Iowa farm women, and Michelle Hoover has perfectly captured their voices and stories with great wisdom, tenderness, and beauty.”--Ted Kooser, U. S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006

Michelle Hoover will read from her new novel at 4:00pm, Sunday, August 1, at Magers & Quinn. Details are here.--David E