The Good Divide

In the lush countryside of Wisconsin, Jean Krenshaw is the ideal 1960’s dairy farm wife. She cooks, sews, raises children, and plans an annual July 4th party for friends and neighbors. But when her brother-in-law Tommy, who lives next door, marries leery newcomer Liz, Jean is forced to confront a ten-year-old family secret involving the unresolved death of a young woman. With stark and swift prose, The Good Divide explores one woman’s tortured inner world, and the painful choices that have divided her life, both past and present, forever. Eric Hoffer Award General Fiction 2017 Winner “VanBaale presents a vivid portrait of one woman’s lifelong struggle to find peace with what she has rather than what she desires. Fiction doesn’t get more real than this.” —Publishers Weekly “This is the book I was waiting to read.” —Laura Kasischke, The Life Before Her Eyes “The Good Divide surprises with the depth of…heartache, the intensity of the torments and jealousies that its characters succumb to, or survive.” —Caitlin Horrocks, author of This is Not Your City