The Land of Little Rain

In The Land of Little Rain, Mary Austin offers a nonfiction, shorts first published in 1903. Mary Austin uses the form to consider ideas, events, practices, and the effort to understand lived reality, keeping the emphasis on how ideas become choices, conflicts, and consequences. Rather than depending on topical novelty, the book builds its interest through the interaction of character, situation, and idea. The reading experience is shaped by a direct explanatory style shaped by observation, argument, and evidence. At roughly 35,522 words with an average difficulty reading profile, it offers a reading commitment that is easy to judge before beginning while still leaving room for close attention. Its continuing value lies in its usefulness as a window into the concerns and assumptions of its time. Readers drawn to nonfiction, shorts and ideas will find a work that combines a distinct period voice with questions that remain recognizable today.