The Northeast Quarter

The Northeast Quarter
S. M. Harris
Wheatmark
Tucson, Arizona
ISBN: 978-1-62787-376-5
Trade Paperback
2016
$ 20.95
464 pages

A birthday celebration changes their lives.
Colonel Wallace Carson is looking forward to his granddaughter's birthday party.  Now that is it 1918, Ann is ten-years-old and feels special that she shares her birthday with the country. 
During the family gathering, the Colonel gives advice to his heir, Ann, to always protect the Northeast Quarter of the family land.  The Colonel started his estate in that part of Winfield, Iowa and expanding his property as he prospered. 
Warren Hyatt decides that this is his moment to tell the Colonel hat life needs to change.  He believes that the revolution in Russia where the workers own the land should be inspirational to change life in this country.  
The Colonel dies.  Did Warren cause his death?
This one death changes life for every member of the Colonel's family.
The Northeast Corner is the story of the household for the next eight years, especially Ann.   Through sheer determination, Ann daily remembers her promise to her grandfather to protect the Northeast Corner, her legacy.  With constant challenges, she realizes that this promise seems impossible to fulfill.  
The promise to preserve the land seemed simple.  The problem to keep the promise is overwhelming, especially to a teenage girl.  How can she possibly fight for her family when they don't fight for themselves?   What does anyone do when the world is against them?
This family saga is reminiscent of Nelson DeMille's novels centering on one character, Ann, while also observing how each of the other family members change throughout the years. 
The Northeast Quarter has phenomenal realistic characterization portraying life in the early part of the twentieth-century before the stock market crash of 1929.  The setting of Winfield, Iowa in the year of 1918 transport the reader into the rich farmland of the time.
The author, S. M. Harris is a playwright of the Colleen series which have been produced off-Broadway in Spokane, Cincinnati, and Baltimore.  The Northeast Quarter is his debut novel.
The Northeast Quarter is for readers who enjoy well-written historical fictions involving family sagas.