Private Way

Ladette Randolph is the editor in chief of Ploughshares magazine and is distinguished publisher-in-residence at Emerson College. She is the author of several books, including This is Not the Tropics (Nebraska, 2022), Haven’s Wake (Bison Books, 2013), A Sandhills Ballad (Bison Books, 2011), and Leaving the Pink House.

“A wonderfully wise, vividly written, and deeply absorbing novel that delves into Willa Cather’s question about what is required of ‘a civilized society.’ By turns funny, reflective, and harrowing . . . Private Way is that rare novel that acknowledges the real hazards of civic life while also celebrating its transformative power.”-Suzanne Berne, author of The Dogs of Littlefield: A Novel “Ladette Randolph carefully attends to quiet revelations. As with her previous evocative work, the seeming periphery of Nebraska centers the story as the state continues to transform, in unexpected places, for those who take the time to look.”-Gretchen E. Henderson, author of The House Enters the Street “In richly evocative prose Ladette Randolph describes the triumphs and failures of Vivi’s new life offline. With its complicated characters and lovely evocations of Nebraska, Private Way is a surprising and utterly absorbing novel.”-Margot Livesey, author of The Boy in the Field “Vivi’s wished-for privacy is challenged by a community teeming with unforgettable characters. . . . Here, in the company of the novels of Willa Cather, Vivi endures a record-setting Nebraska winter that challenges her to abandon her usual mode of evasion and secrecy. And therein lies the heart of Private Way.”-Pamela Painter, author of Fabrications: New and Selected Stories

• Author's Note1. Empty Houses2. Pie Girl3. No Empty Threats4. Like Madness5. A Spy in the Hinterland6. How Mary Garlic Ruined Mary Garth for Me7. Imaginary Family8. Brain Fog9. You’d Be So Pretty If Only10. Gazetteer Nebraska11. Tillie’s Wonderland12. Give-Me-a-Break Potluck13. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Kills on Fieldcrest Drive14. One Little Life15. The Storm That Was a Mother to Me16. Go-To Neighbor17. Ivan the Czech Guy18. Road Trip to Catherland19. Thanksgiving in the Czech Capital of the USA20. Where Ivan Outs Me21. Maybe It’s a Ghost After All22. The Part Where Ivan Brings a Pie23. Our Non-Traditions24. There’s Cold and Then There’s Cold25. Bliss = Bill26. Too Fine a Cut27. Spring Clean Up, Spring Screw-Up28. A Kolache Action29. Chuck’s Not-So-Funny Tales of Sexual Humiliation30. A Lady Lost31. My Mortal Enemies32. Pies4PeaceAcknowledgments