"The Able McLaughlins" is a novel by Margaret Wilson that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924. It follows a family of Scotch Covenanters who settled the American prairies in the 1860s. The McLaughlin's oldest son Wully has just returned from the Civil War planning to marry his sweetheart Christie McNair, but for some reason, she won't talk to him anymore. Wully finds himself hurt and perplexed until he finds out that the cause of her rejection is the terrible...

A love story set during the Cherokee Nation's tumultuous struggle for justice in the 1830s follows a young couple's relationship as it is tested by government pressure to surrender tribal territory and move west.

"Orphaned Jim Burden rides the trains from Virginia to Black Hawk, Nebraska, where he will live with his paternal grandparents. Jake, a farmhand from Virginia, rides with the 10-year-old boy. On the same train, headed to the same destination, is the Shimerda family from Bohemia. Jim lives with his grandparents in the home they have built, helping as he can with chores to ease the burden on the others. The home has the dining room and kitchen downstairs,...