[2016] The Practice House

Nineteen-year-old Aldine McKenna is stuck at home with her sister and aunt in a Scottish village in 1929 when two Mormon missionaries ring the doorbell. Aldine’s sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she’s meant to lead and the person she’s meant to love.
In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine: drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price—the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad—and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.
Laura McNeal’s novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving—and finding—home.
**Review
“A stunning, pitch-perfect tale of a star-crossed, Depression-era love triangle. National Book Award finalist Laura McNeal is a magnificent writer.” —Lily King, author of *Euphoria*
“Laura McNeal’s tale of Aldine McKenna’s journey from Scotland to the drought-stricken wheat fields of Kansas is written with a deftness and lyricism that recalls Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn. It is at once about an immigrant’s journey, a family’s epic, and a necessary history told straight from the heart. It’s the kind of book readers will return to again and again.” —Douglas Unger, author of Leaving the Land and Voices from Silence
“A vibrant, stirring gem of a book.” —Ron Hansen, National Book Award Finalist for *Atticus*
“The novel, in its understated and brilliantly imagined scenes, draws us into the everyday joys and the wrenching struggles of Aldine McKenna’s journey. It opens up her heart to us.” —Darrell Spencer, author of *Bring Your Legs With You*
“The memorable characters, well-constructed setting, and beautiful prose make the novel shine. Dust, lust, and human drama rendered with sensitivity, depth, and breadth.” —*Kirkus Reviews*
About the Author
Laura Rhoton McNeal holds an MA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and is the author, with her husband, Tom, of four critically acclaimed young adult novels, including Crooked (winner of the California Book Award in Juvenile Literature) and Zipped (winner of the Pen Center USA Literary Award in Children’s and Young Adult Literature). Laura’s solo debut novel, Dark Water, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives with her family in Coronado, California.