Above link not working? Click here to launch Zoom session

Join us on Thursday at 3PM to chat about the book!

A Death in the Desert

Willa Cather

This week we are reading the short story 'A Death in the Desert' by Willa Cather. The story is about a man called Everett who is on a train from Holdrege, Nebraska to Cheyenne, Wyoming. He is a man that looks like his older prodigy brother Adriance - this similarity haunts him throughout the entire novel and robs him of his own personality. He will always be Adriance's brother.

Everett meets woman who is approaching death that once knew his brother well as a companion of sorts. This is the 'Death' in the desert at the story from a literal standpoint, but there are many more metaphorical deaths within the story as well. Everett takes upon himself to accompany her until her passing, or as he describes it, guiding a cast off from his brother’s speed and powerful main river, his actions being that of a contributing tributary. 

"No matter what his mission, east or west, by land or sea, he was sure to find himself employed in his brother's business, one of the tributary lives which helped to swell the shining current of Adriance Hilgarde's. It was not the first time that his duty had been to comfort, as best he could, one of the broken things his brother's imperious speed had cast aside and forgotten..."

The story was original publish in 1903 in the Scribner's Magazine. 

Read the book: ' A Death in the Desert'

Listen to the book

About the Author

Willa Sibert Cather was born in 1873 on her maternal grandmother's farm in the Back Creek Valley near Winchester, Virginia. was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, and My Ántonia. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours, a novel set during World War I.

Cather achieved recognition as a novelist of the frontier and pioneer experience. She wrote of the tenacity and spirit of settlers, many of them European immigrants, in the Great Plains in the early to mid-20th century. Common themes in her work include loss, exile, and social isolation. A sense of place is an important element in Cather's fiction; sometimes harsh, often beautiful, physical landscapes and domestic spaces are for Cather dynamic presences against which the characters both struggle and express love.

What is the book club?

Join us every week for a book club, each week we will read a new short story of part of a larger book, the books will be made available as an audio book and we will meet as a group via zoom to chat about the story. All are welcome, hope to see you there. 

How to join the club to chat

The zoom link to join will apear above on this page at 3PM on Thursday. To join you will need a phone/tablet or laptop with a built in camera and microphone (most modern devices come with this) you may need to download the zoom app onto your phone if you are using a phone to join.

Sign up if you would like to receive an email remeinder of the book club, to do this you must first create a profile.

Create a profile now