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WINNER OF THE LILLIAN SMITH BOOK AWARD

WINNER OF THE ALABAMA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR FICTION

The complex friendship between a black housekeeper and her Jewish employer is at the heart of Hoffman’s prize-winning novel about life in the civil rights era South

Almost Family: 35th Anniversary Edition by Roy Hoffman is a powerful and deeply human novel that explores the complicated realities of race, religion, class, and family in the Civil Rights-era South. Set in Alabama and spanning nearly three decades, the story centers on the enduring yet fragile friendship between Nebraska Waters, a Black domestic worker, and Vivian Gold, her Jewish employer. Bound together by daily routines, shared concerns, and genuine affection, the two women develop a relationship that often resembles family while remaining constrained by the racial and social boundaries of their time.

As the Civil Rights Movement reshapes the South, the lives of Nebraska and Vivian become increasingly intertwined with the hopes, fears, and conflicts of their children, husbands, and communities. Through richly drawn characters and keen social observation, Hoffman captures the personal impact of historic change and the ways public events reverberate through private lives. The novel examines both the possibilities for understanding across differences and the misunderstandings that can persist despite years of intimacy and shared experience.

This acclaimed Southern classic offers a moving meditation on friendship, identity, belonging, and the evolving meaning of family in a changing America.

The Sagebrush Ocean, the essential introduction to the ecology and spirit of the Great Basin Desert, returns in this richly updated 35th anniversary edition. Winner of the Ansel Adams Award for Photography and Conservation, Stephen Trimble’s authoritative voice and evocative photographs illuminate this landscape of sun-struck playas, surprising wetlands, remote canyons, and wind-swept tundra.

Today, the once-vast “sagebrush ocean” is an endangered sea, as environmental changes and human development have diminished it by half. This heartbreaking decline drives Trimble’s updated text, but he blends loss with reverence for what remains—and urgent insight into what’s at stake. Striking color photographs, many newly added, illuminate some of the continent’s most spectacular but little known scenery. For anyone curious about the Great Basin or concerned for its future, this timely edition is indispensable.