"A Death in the Desert" by Willa Cather (1903)

 

I have yet to find anything by Willa Cather that does not cut me directly in the heart. Her 1918 novel "My Ántonia" is still one of my all-time favourites and to this day I marvel how she created such unforgettable and evocative story in what is basically a very short volume - it was a tiny, slim book that completely overtook me and just thinking about it makes me want to read it again. So it took me a while, but to Cather I eventually did return and it happened via this novella/short story published for the first time in 1903 and later again in her very first published book, which was a short story collection "The Troll Garden" two years later. Considering how much I had enjoyed this, I should probably just get the whole collection - it is even available free online.

"A Death in the Desert" is happening, like other Cather's works, in Great Plains - wide, open spaces, often dusty deserts, in this case somewhere between Nebraska and Wyoming - this is where the main protagonist Everett travels in a train and he is time and time again wrongly recognised as his very similar brother Adriance whom he greatly resembles. We learn that Everett spend his whole life in the shadow of his famous and celebrated composer brother, even to extent that he never married and quietly suffered as his only love, singer Katharine never paid any attention to him and followed his brother on the international tours instead. But now in the middle of nowhere, Katharine and Everett meat again and he learns that she is dying from Tuberculosis here on her brother's farm - she begs him to visit her and during the time spent together, they bond over memories they share, including the connection with Adriance. Everett informs his brother that Katharine is dying and she gets a very gentle and considerate letter that cheers her up enormously, but both of them are aware that the end is near and their love was never to be. Neither Everett nor Katharine never experienced genuine love, being always in the shadow of magnetic and charismatic Adriance. 

I have listened it as an audio book and was moved so much that i almost wept on the street.