The book opens with a vignette about an old man who is dying. The author then goes on to tell the story of his life and how he came to die. It was written before germs existed, so it could be set in any time period from 18th century until today.
O podcast! O books! O episodes about hard-scrabble immigrants eking out an existence on tough Nebraska land. Cather's work - rich in memorable prose and compelling characters - could stand to be better known, but it still has blind spots common in American frontier fiction.