The lives of 91-year-old Ira Levinson, young cowboy Luke, and Wake Forest College senior Sophia Danko converge in an extraordinary and unexpected way as Ira clings to his wife Ruth's words and his memories and Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans.

His last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure provoked such widespread and bitter attacks that Hardy claimed it caused him to stop writing novels. The primary causes of the uproar involved Hardy's frank treatment of sexual themes and his unconventional portrayal of the pillars of Victorian society: the British university system, marriage, and religion. Today, many consider this to be Hardy's finest work.

The story involves

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