Addie Moore and Louis Waters have much in common. They both live on Cedar Street in Holt, Colorado. They have both lost their spouses. With their families grown and gone, nights are long and lonely. Though they have been acquainted for decades, what they don’t know about each other is much greater that what they do. Louis is shocked when Addie arrives at his home one day with a proposal. She would like him to come and spend nights in her bed, to talk and fall asleep together.

On the doorstep before their first evening together Louis shares his uncertainties with Addie. He says that he is not sure they are equal in courage or the willingness to take the risks her proposal requires. He has past experience with small town gossip. Soon, however, they establish a comfortable routine. He arrives at her home shortly before bedtime; they share a drink and pass the moments before sleep sharing pieces of their history with each other. We learn about Louis’s affair with a co-worker and the accidental death of Addie’s daughter at age 11.

We peek in and see them coming together to give comfort to Addie’s grandson, Jamie, who needs a refuge from his parents’ problems. As their friendship deepens we get to see them exploring the best of rural life: the county fair, hometown softball. They adopt a dog for Jamie. Louis teaches the boy about baseball and gardening. They share outings with their elderly friend Ruth. It all seems so easy and maybe too good to be true. They are unaware that an ultimatum will soon be delivered and heartbreaking choices must be made.

This is a story of two brave people and their willingness to take a chance on each other. It is a novel that celebrates making the most of simple pleasures. It is a love story full of nostalgia and the details of everyday life. It is a fairy tale. Various on-line reviewers use words like poignant, tender, and quiet. I was hooked on this story from the first paragraph. I found it to be a tiny book packed full of emotion.

Kent Haruf wrote Our Souls at Night while he suffered from a lung disease and died shortly after it was finished. He modeled Addie and Louis’s late night chats after similar talks with his own wife. Earlier titles by Kent Haruf available at the library include the Plainsong trilogy also set in the fictional town of Holt.

Our Souls at Night is available at the library in both print and e-book format, as a CD audiobook, and as a kit of 10 copies with discussion questions for your book club.