My Antonia / Willa Cather / 371 pages / Deceased Author Challenge

This inspiring story is narrated by Jim, an orphan sent to live with his grandparents in Black Hawk, Nebraska.  Life on the frontier is hard but civilization has made inroads and there is often a clash between newly arrived, hard-working, often non-English speaking, immigrants and established residents.  Jim is attracted to one Bohemian immigrant, Antonia.  He is impressed by her strong, independent personality and indomitable refusal to allow hardships to defeat her.  Jim notes how the immigrants often succeed where others fail because of their determination and their flexible, at times necessarily questionable, interpretation of law and social mores.  Jim reconnects with Antonia years later.  Jim is a lawyer and Antonia is mother of a multitude, still battling poverty, but relishing the love of her family.  She is the core, the inspiration, the storyteller.