The Prairie Trilogy
by Willa Cather
Told in five parts, O Pioneers! follows the Bergsons, a family of Swedish-American immigrants farming the prairie of Nebraska at the turn of the 20th century. After the death of her father, Alexandra and her brothers inherit the family farm, and struggle to keep it.
As the Nebraskan farming community grows and her older brothers build families and comfortable lives, Alexandra remains, attached to the land, her youngest brother, Emil, and her neighbor, Marie Shabata. These three central characters navigate duty, familial pressures, tragedy, and an uncertain romance.
Thea Kronborg, a minister's daughter in a provincial Colorado town, seems destined from childhood for a place in the world. But as her path leads her ever farther from the small town she can't forget and the man she can't afford to love, Thea learns that her exceptional musical talent and fierce ambition are not enough.
Young people grow up in the new settlements of the early twentieth century Nebraska prairie. This is a tightly written, haunting story with vivid descriptions.