Small, Careful Thing

A truly accomplished first novel about belonging and exclusion set in the world of modern academia.

At St. Elias College in northern Minnesota, where old stone buildings rise above the evergreens

and a narrow creek winds through the center of campus, literature professor Owen Sheffield has

built a comfortable life around tenure and the firm belief that he has earned it. He has never

once wondered who paid for it. Owen’s colleague and ex-wife Meredith, on the other hand, has

experienced how quickly such certainty can disappear. So when a fearful student comes to her

office with a secret she can’t afford to tell, Meredith knows she must do what’s right despite the

cost.

Meanwhile, at a university in Massachusetts, Owen and Meredith's daughter, Suvi, studies with

a history professor who recovers forgotten lives. While on a research trip to a long-abandoned

cemetery, Suvi discovers a name on a headstone—and the story behind it—that someone close

to her would rather leave buried.

Then comes Owen’s controversial book, a provocative examination of work, class, and culture in

rural America that puts him deeply at odds with nearly everyone in his orbit—and far beyond it.

Soon there are protests. An undocumented student disappears. A daughter finds herself in

public opposition to her father. And Owen's comfortable life begins to come apart, one footnote

at a time.

Matt Ridenour’s debut novel, A Small, Careful Thing, is a contemporary campus novel, one that

follows debates about privilege and power from the college classroom to the kitchen table. At its

heart is one question: Who gets to belong, and whose exclusion makes that belonging

possible?