Miracle Country, Kendra Atleework
Miracle Country, Kendra Atleework
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Miracle Country
A Memoir

Author: Kendra Atleework

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged: 9 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/21/2020


Synopsis

Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero.

Kendra's family raised their children to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it came at a price. When Kendra was six, her mother was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, and she died when Kendra was sixteen. Her family fell apart, even as her father tried to keep them together. Kendra took flight from her bereft family, escaping to the enemy city of Los Angeles, and then Minneapolis, land of all trees, no deserts, no droughts, full lakes, water everywhere you look.

But after years of avoiding the pain of her hometown, she realized that she had to go back, that the desert was the only place she could live. Like Wild, Miracle Country is a story of flight and return, bounty and emptiness, and the true meaning of home. But it also speaks to the ravages of climate change and its permanent destruction of the way of life in one particular town.

About Kendra Atleework

Kendra Atleework received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. An essay that formed the basis for a chapter of Miracle Country was selected for The Best American Essays 2015. She is the recipient of the Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award and the AWP Intro Journals Project Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sharon on July 29, 2020

I lived for 40 years in the rain shadow of the Sierras and fully understand Kendra’s love for the raw beauty that comes with this country. What they called the Sierra Wave we called the Washoe Zephyr, because you need a name to make friends with such a violent beast. It drives the weather and it dri......more

Goodreads review by Clio on September 03, 2020

I feel like I don’t have the words to begin how to describe how I feel about this book. The way the author weaves the past and the present is effortless. The book reminds us the we can not move forward without remembering what came before - and holds our hand through California’s history. Challenging......more

Goodreads review by Melissa on July 20, 2020

Miracle Country is the memoir of Kendra Atleework, who grew up with her family in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada at the mercy of all nature could throw at them. After losing her mother at 16, her family fell apart and Kendra escaped to LA and then Minneapolis, but eventually returned......more

Goodreads review by James on April 04, 2020

An incredibly beautiful, moving memoir, seamlessly weaving the author’s own history with that of the Owens Valley. Atleework writes about the loss of her mother in a way that is poetic and unflinching. She captures the magic and the danger of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, the vulnerability of being a y......more

Goodreads review by Debbi on November 02, 2020

Memoirs are tricky. While everyone has a unique story not every story sparks interest. Miracle Country is part memoir and part biography of a place. I would place it in the literary non fiction genre. The writing was good, but it wasn't powerful enough to carry me through. DNF at the half way mark.......more