The Driest Season

Written by Meghan Kenny

Narrated by Amy Melissa Bentley

As her Wisconsin community endures a long season of drought and feels the shockwaves of World War II, fifteen-year-old Cielle endures a more personal calamity: the unexpected death of her father. On a balmy summer afternoon, she finds him hanging in the barn—the start of a dark secret that threatens her family's livelihood. A war rages elsewhere, while in the deceptive calm of the American heartland, Cielle's family contends with a new reality and fights not to be undone.



A stunning debut, The Driest Season creates a moving portrait of Cielle's struggle to make sense of her father's time on earth, and of her own. With wisdom and grit, Kenny has fashioned a deeply affecting story of a young woman discovering loss, heartache, and—finally—hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Jul 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781696601047

Reviews for The Driest Season

[iadam-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received a free e-copy of this book and have chosen to write an honest and unbiased review. I have no personal affiliation with the author. This is a short but powerful story. The setting is a Wisconsin farm in 1943 and the boys are going off to WW II. A young girl discovers that her father has hanged himself in the barn when she comes home from school. Her mother with assistance from a neighbor covers it up and calls it a tractor accident. We feel the stigma to suicide in the community throughout the story. Then a tornado destroys the barn. Who is going to cut and bale the hay and where will they store it? What is going to happen to the family? What is going to happen to the farm and land? As happened so often during and after the Great Depression the land was bought by a neighbor and rented back to the family with the option to buy it back. Will the owner of the land discover that it was a suicide and void their contract to buy the land back? Meghan is a very descriptive writer. This is a great short story and I’d like to see the story and its characters developed further. I’d really like to know what happens to this family. I look forward to reading more from Meghan Kenny in the future.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A slice of life in the American heartland. Boaz Wisconsin, 1943, Cielle finds her father dead, hanging from the rafters in the barn. This discovery puts the family at risk, their farm at risk, and leads Cielle on the quest to discover exactly why her beloved father did what he did. (Not a spoiler since this discovery is part of the books summary) Although America is going to war, and will touch this family, the events of the summer take precedence, as Cielle must come to terms with a huge loss and it's aftereffects.

Cielle, soon to be sixteen, as expected changes over this summer, grows up and comes to understand the contrary nature of man's outward personality, and the churning difficulties he harbors within. It is a slow road of often somber realizations, but beautifully written. The flashbacks to specific moments with her father were wonderfully portrayed, and emotionally touching. Family, friends, the weather affecting the farm, a first love, and a broken romance are encompassed in this novel. The descriptions of the country side are brilliantly rendered. A beautiful place that holds the family at its center, their life and livlihood caught within.

The Amish, and their different standards of living, come to the aid of this small family, and bring a different sort of realization to Cielle. A quiet, internal novel about facing a devastating loss while attempting to keep external forces from taking what is theirs.

ARC from edelweiss.