Where Willows Grow

During the Great Depression, Harley Phipps leaves the Kansas plains to go to work for the Works in Progress Administration (WPA). With soft, gentle tones Linda Stephens captures his wife, Anna's, loneliness and anxiety at his departure and her conflict over her latest pregnancy. She knows they can't afford to feed the two children they have--that's one reason Harley has to leave. The other is the endless drought that's killing their farm. Stephens's rich vocal personality and deft narration dramatize a family's struggles with economic hardship as they fight to hang on to their property. Her energetic, textured characterizations reveal the abiding endurance that defines these characters and the historical period they live in. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine