Some Luck

Some Luck is  the first  volume of Pulitzer-prizewinning novelist Jane Smiley’s new trilogy The Last Hundred Years. 

Jane Smiley Mantle, €17.99;

ebook, €11.99

This volume runs from 1920 to 1953, following the fortunes of the Langdons — a farming family in Iowa — and covers the Great Depression and World War II, complete with Pearl Harbour and the atomic bomb.

Walter the head of the family is deeply traditional.

He doesn’t see the value of a tractor, as you can grow the feed for the horses but have to buy the fuel for the tractor. He is envious of his father holding his land free and clear.

Each chapter covers a year — some are momentous, others merely domestic. In the early part of the book, Smiley is particularly good on getting in to the mind of a child as Frank and then his siblings are born. The novel is all about subtleties, rather than plot driving narrative.

The characters develop and grow over 30 years and to see the impact of their actions, you will be waiting eagerly for the next instalment in the trilogy.