Book Review of Hannah Coulter

Oh, Hannah Coulter. I loved this book. It is quiet, patient, and considered. It was a comforting book, and felt kind of like a weighted blanket to my brain. It was just beautifully written, and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. This is not a modern novel and it doesn’t feel fresh like Nothing to See Here. It feels old and good and it makes me want to keep learning to put into words these very plain old things that make up each of our lives.

From the publisher: Hannah Coulter is Wendell Berry’s seventh novel and his first to employ the voice of a woman character in its telling. Hannah, the now-elderly narrator, recounts the love she has for the land and for her community. She remembers each of her two husbands, and all places and community connections threatened by twentieth-century technologies. At risk is the whole culture of family farming, hope redeemed when her wayward and once lost grandson, Virgil, returns to his rural home place to work the farm.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: I’ll keep this on my bookshelf forever. I never, ever reread books (except A Gift From the Sea) but I can already imagine pulling this book back out and reading it for comfort. Like all of Wendell Berry’s work, it reminds me of the incredible importance of our place in the world, the value of long relationships, and the benefit of diligent work. It’s just really beautiful. This isn’t a book to read to be entertained as much as it is to be soothed and steadied.