Where You Once Belonged

With spare, simple prose, Kent Haruf paints a revealing and insightful portrait of small-town life and the chilling consequences of one man’s actions.

Heavy-built Jack Burdette is quite literally too big for his boots and too big certainly for the small-town attitudes of Holt, Colorado. But when he fails to make the grade as a college footballer, and takes a job with the local farmers’ co-operative, it seems he has finally settled into the rhythm and routine of everyday life. Outward appearances can be deceptive, however, as Jack proves: returning from a weekend conference with a new wife in tow, then leaving her behind and skipping town with a bundle of other folk’s money.

Nearly a decade later, no one has forgiven or forgotten, and when Jack reappears, resentment runs high. Once again though, it is Jack whose presence even more than his eight-year absence proves the most devastating.