Book excerpt: Lost Without the River is an elegantly wrought memoir of resilience, courage, and reinvention. A portrait of nature at its most beautiful and demanding, it is the story of a girl whose family struggled against Depression-era hardship and personal tragedy to carve out a small farm in rural South Dakota. The youngest of seven, Barbara wrestles against the expectations of her family, the strictures of the church, and the limits imposed by a male-dominated culture. Eager for adventure, she leaves the farm—first for the Peace Corps and ultimately for the unknown environs of Manhattan’s Upper East Side—but she never truly escapes. Lost Without the River demonstrates the emotional power that even the smallest place can exert, and the gravitational pull that calls a person back home.