Farthest House

Literature & Fiction

synopsis

Synopsis

When Willow is born and her mother dies moments later, only the narrator of this spellbinding debut novel knows the death isn't from complications of childbirth. Amelie-Anais, buried on the Nebraska hilltop where the family home resides, tells the story of deceit, survival, and love from beyond the grave. Following Willow's life and Willow's incredible passion to paint despite loneliness, a physical handicap, and being raised by a father plagued with secrets, Amelie-Anais weaves together the lives of four enigmatic generations.

bio

Author Biography

Margaret Lukas taught at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the Writers Workshop for over a decade. She received her BFA in 2004 from the University of Nebraska. In 2007, she received her MFA from Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, Washington. Her writing appears online and in a number of anthologies. Her award-winning short story, “The Yellow Bird,” was made into a 'short' and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. She is a recipient of a 2009 Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist fellowship. Farthest House is her first novel. Her second novel, River People, is scheduled for release in February 2019.

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Author Insight

Being Vulnerable

*White Mask is Willow’s first successful painting. It’s not successful for its execution—talent never reaches an end—but successful for its ability to move her. That’s what good art does. The painting symbolizes her fears, and it won’t let her shut down in them. She is afraid of her authentic self, afraid of being so vulnerable. What she learns is that not being authentic IS shutting down. It’s self-attack. White Mask is a mirror. A promise too, of her ability to step out of the dark place of fear. She’s the only one who can take off the mask. In this scene she’s still scared, but understanding the mirror is a huge step.

Book Excerpt

Farthest House

On the canvas, grays, greens, umbers, and sables dominated. A girl, half hidden in the shadows of overarching trees, crouched in undergrowth along a forest’s edge. She wore a mask: a wide square of bone-colored birch bark with two dark eyeholes.

Willow smiled to herself and sat down on her bed. She never imagined Mary would one day be standing in her room, having all but broken in, to see a painting. “It’s not weird or creepy, she’s just hiding,” Willow said. “She’s scared to come out of the woods and into this world. It’s called White Mask.”

Mary glowered, “Stupid.”

“When she does come out, the mask will fall off. She’s been hiding her whole life because she knows if she takes a face everything will change.” Willow loved the story so far. She was doing exactly as Mémé had done in writing Mother Moses’ story. “If she takes a face, she can’t ever go back into hiding. That’s the scary part.”

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Margaret Lukas

Farthest House

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Being Vulnerable

Book Excerpt

Farthest House

Comment on this Bubble