Northern Borders — Howard Frank Mosher

A New York Times Notable Book: A novel about growing up in a remote corner of Vermont, from the author Richard Russo calls “one of our very best writers.”
 
When six-year-old Austen Kittredge was sent up north to live on his grandparents' farm in 1948, he didn't know that he would spend the next twelve years of his life there -- or that his remarkable stay would never leave him, no matter how far he traveled.
 
The farm in Lost Nation Hollow would become a magical place for Austen, full of eccentric people -- like his stubborn but loving grandparents, whose marriage was known as the Forty Years War -- wild adventures, and festering family secrets. An enchanting, startling coming-of-age novel, Northern Borders evokes a world of county fairs, heirloom quilts, and timber forests, in “a touching and unforgettable portrait of a people and time that are past” (Fannie Flagg, The New York Times Book Review).
 
“A contemporary classic . . . A complex, yet idyllic, story of childhood in Vermont.” -- Los Angeles Times