From the bestselling author of The Shipping News comes Postcards the tale of the Blood family New England farmers who must confront the twentieth century -- and their own extinction. As the family slowly disintegrates its members struggle valiantly against the powerful forces of loneliness and necessity seeking a sense of home and place forever lost. Loyal Blood eldest son is forced to abandon the farm when he takes his lover s life thus beginning a quintessentially American odyssey of solitude and adventure. Yearning for love yet forced by circumstance to be always alone Loyal comes to symbolize the alienation and frustration behind the American dream.