| Author/Contributor(s): | Ridenour, Matthew |
| Publisher: | Vitis |
| Date: | 5/25/2027 |
| Binding: | Hardcover |
| Condition: | NEW |
At St. Elias College in northern Minnesota, where old stone buildings rise above the evergreens
and a narrow creek winds through the center of campus, literature professor Owen Sheffield has
built a comfortable life around tenure and the firm belief that he has earned it. He has never
once wondered who paid for it. Owen’s colleague and ex-wife Meredith, on the other hand, has
experienced how quickly such certainty can disappear. So when a fearful student comes to her
office with a secret she can’t afford to tell, Meredith knows she must do what’s right despite the
cost.
Meanwhile, at a university in Massachusetts, Owen and Meredith's daughter, Suvi, studies with
a history professor who recovers forgotten lives. While on a research trip to a long-abandoned
cemetery, Suvi discovers a name on a headstone—and the story behind it—that someone close
to her would rather leave buried.
Then comes Owen’s controversial book, a provocative examination of work, class, and culture in
rural America that puts him deeply at odds with nearly everyone in his orbit—and far beyond it.
Soon there are protests. An undocumented student disappears. A daughter finds herself in
public opposition to her father. And Owen's comfortable life begins to come apart, one footnote
at a time.
Matt Ridenour’s debut novel, A Small, Careful Thing, is a contemporary campus novel, one that
follows debates about privilege and power from the college classroom to the kitchen table. At its
heart is one question: Who gets to belong, and whose exclusion makes that belonging
possible?