{"product_id":"9781611884548","title":"Small, Careful Thing","description":"\u003cb\u003eA truly accomplished first novel about belonging and exclusion set in the world of modern academia.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt St. Elias College in northern Minnesota, where old stone buildings rise above the evergreens\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e and a narrow creek winds through the center of campus, literature professor Owen Sheffield has\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e built a comfortable life around tenure and the firm belief that he has earned it. He has never\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e once wondered who paid for it. Owen’s colleague and ex-wife Meredith, on the other hand, has\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e experienced how quickly such certainty can disappear. So when a fearful student comes to her\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e office with a secret she can’t afford to tell, Meredith knows she must do what’s right despite the\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e cost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeanwhile, at a university in Massachusetts, Owen and Meredith's daughter, Suvi, studies with\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e a history professor who recovers forgotten lives. While on a research trip to a long-abandoned\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e cemetery, Suvi discovers a name on a headstone—and the story behind it—that someone close\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e to her would rather leave buried.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen comes Owen’s controversial book, a provocative examination of work, class, and culture in\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e rural America that puts him deeply at odds with nearly everyone in his orbit—and far beyond it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Soon there are protests. An undocumented student disappears. A daughter finds herself in\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e public opposition to her father. And Owen's comfortable life begins to come apart, one footnote\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e at a time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMatt Ridenour’s debut novel, \u003ci\u003eA Small, Careful Thing\u003c\/i\u003e, is a contemporary campus novel, one that\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e follows debates about privilege and power from the college classroom to the kitchen table. At its\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e heart is one question: Who gets to belong, and whose exclusion makes that belonging\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e possible?","brand":"Simon and Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":60378228883742,"sku":"9781611884548","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.simonandschuster.com\/products\/9781611884548","provider":"Simon and Schuster","version":"1.0","type":"link"}