Classic fiction

The Song of the Lark

by Willa Cather

Thea Kronborg grows up in a Colorado railroad town with a musical gift that few people around her fully understand. Teachers, patrons, friendships, and disciplined study carry her toward professional singing, but artistic development requires leaving familiar expectations and accepting an increasingly solitary ambition. Thea's encounter with the desert cliff dwellings at Panther Canyon deepens her sense of art as something older and larger than social approval. Expansive and unsentimental, this artist's coming-of-age novel suits a long creative retreat for readers interested in music, Western landscapes, vocation, and the difficult transformation of talent into sustained work.