From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley comes the first instalment in a landmark trilogy spanning the last hundred years.

"Intimate . . . Miraculous . . . Staggering . . . A masterpiece in the making." USA Today

Life can change in an instant, and as those changes amass over the course of one hundred years, something extraordinary happens - history is made. In this masterful novel, Jane Smiley explores the triumphs and tragedies of one family, while casting a panoramic eye on the first half of the twentieth century, a time of monumental change.

Some Luck opens on the humble, heavily indebted Langdon family farm in 1920. We meet Rosanna and Walter, their curious, brilliant newborn Frank. Soon the family grows to five children, all wildly different yet remarkable, with such potential to mark history in their own ways. Yet as time passes, as it must, some thrive as others fall victim to flaws and fate. Who will persevere? Who will simply, sadly, be forgotten?

With shared joys and hushed secrets, through times of economic and political volatility, Some Luck examines the nature of family, character, and how we are all changed by circumstances unforeseen.

National Book Award Nominee 2014

A Best Book of the Year 2014: The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Financial Times, The Seattle Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, BookPage