Belong Here Now: A Novel

It's an historic novel, and it's hard to believe this is a debut work! "Talk about hitting me on so many good points," says John Busbee of The Culture Buzz, weekly on KFMG.org.

Set against the harsh backdrop of Montana, You Belong Here Now is a novel as straightforward and powerful as the characters who populate it, according to William Kent Krueger, New York Times best-selling author of This Tender Land. "I love this book, and I guarantee you won't find a finer debut work anywhere."

Kathleen Grissom, New York Times best-selling author of The Kitchen House, states that "You Belong Here Now distills the essence of the American spirit in this uplifting story. Perfect for book clubs looking to discuss the true meaning of family."

In this brilliant debut, reminiscent of Krueger's This Tender Land and Lisa Wingate's Before We Were Yours, three orphans journey westward from New York City to the Big Sky Country of Montana, hoping for a better life where beautiful wild horses roam free.

The year is 1925, and three brave kids from New York board the orphan train headed west. An Irish boy who lost his whole family to Spanish flu, a tiny girl who won't talk, and a volatile young man desperately needing to escape Hell's Kitchen. They are paraded on platforms across the Midwest to work-worn folks, journeying countless miles, racing the sun westward. Before they reach the last rejection and stop, the kids come up with a daring plan and set off toward the Yellowstone River and grassy mountains where the wild horses roam.

Fate guides them toward the ranch of a family stricken by loss. Broken and unable to outrun their pasts in New York, the family must do the unthinkable to save them. Nara, the daughter of a successful cattleman, has grown into a brusque spinster who refuses the kids on sight. She's worked hard to gain her father's respect and hopes to run their operation, but if the kids stay, she'll be stuck in the kitchen.

Nara works them without mercy, hoping they'll run off, but they buck up and show spirit, and though Nara will never be motherly, she begins to take to them. When Charles is jailed for freeing wild horses rounded up for slaughter, and an abusive mother from New York shows up to take the youngest, Nara does the unthinkable, risking everything she holds dear to change their lives forever.

"From the moment the reader steps on the train with these orphaned children, You Belong Here Now shows how beauty can emerge from even the darkest places," says Erika Robuck, national best-selling author of Hemingway's Girl.

Rostad's "bighearted debut is full of surprises, and warm with wisdom about what it means to be family," adds Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times best-selling author of The Last Train to London.

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