Driven by youthful idealism, Thomas Deracotte and his pregnant wife, Helen, leave upper-crust Connecticut for a utopian adventure in the Idaho wilderness, purchasing a dilapidated local farm and optimistically setting up housekeeping with the help of a local boy.

Elliot the little elephant and his best friend, Mouse, play hide-and-seek during an autumn vacation in the countryside.

Barbara Pym's first novel offers a self-assured slice of village life as it takes us into the lives of two sisters living in post–World War II England Belinda and Harriet Bede live together in a small English village. Shy, sensible Belinda has been secretly in love with Henry Hoccleve-the poetry-spouting, married archdeacon of their church-for thirty years. Belinda's much more confident, forthright younger sister Harriet, meanwhile, is ardently...

At the end of the war, Mrs. Midge stayed on. While the war lasted Mrs. Custance had accepted her as part of the war-effort; it was only in the past year or two that Mrs. Midge had been transferred to the category which Mrs. Custance described as "people we could manage without." Elizabeth Fair's rollicking second novel takes place in Little Mallin, where village life is largely dominated by preparations for the August Festival. Out of such ordinary...

A widow, at an age when birthdays are best forgotten, with no children to occupy her mind, can be very lonely. Julia Dunstan knew she was more fortunate than most widows, not merely because she was prosperous-as widows go-but because she had always taken an interest in other people. And from the moment Julia moves to Goatstock, where she has inherited a house, there are plenty of people for her to take an interest in. For a start, there's cousin...