Book Description

The Pulitzer Prize–winning “masterpiece” by the acclaimed author of Giant follows the life of a farming woman on the Illinois prairie (The Literary Review).

In the small Dutch community of New Holland, Illinois, Selina DeJong dedicates herself to her passion for learning by becoming a schoolteacher. But as life progresses, she finds other loves: first, her husband, Pervus, a Dutch farmer; and then her son, Dirk, whom she nicknames “So Big” in reference to the common refrain: “How big is baby? So big!”

Throughout her life, Selina never loses her fondness for learning and art—even as tragedy, loss, the realities of hard work, and the necessity of money threaten to eclipse all else. But as her son grows up to pursue his fortune in Chicago, can she help him retain those same values?

So Big is the story of both a woman and her son, and a country in the midst of profound cultural transition. The winner of the 1925 Pulitzer Prize, it is widely considered author Edna Ferber’s masterpiece.

“It has the completeness, [the] finality, that grips and exalts and convinces.” —The Literary Review