In this focused yet wide-ranging novel of the contemporary Great Plains, Philip Kimball addresses a number of important social concerns. Themes include the nature of work, of community and the individual's place in it, the nature of family and family relationships, ecology and the stewardship necessary to preserve and enhance soil and other natural resources used in agriculture.

He also explores marriage in its many forms, as well as the condition of the American Indian, especially that of the modern Cherokee Tribe and the efforts of its members to adjust to the Great Removal while trying to retain their identity. Harvesting Ballads is a novel of ideas as well as of people and their passions.

For Marcus Baldwin, the son of an indomitable woman and an alcoholic father, the hard work necessary to make the farm (homesteaded in the Run into Oklahoma Territory in 1889 by his...