quot;One midnight when I was about sixteen and watching the late movie with Dad, I started to nod off. He rocked my shoulder. ldquo;Listenup,rdquo; he said, pointing to the screen. I propped up to peer past the bowl of old maids to see Mr. Orsquo;Hara, redder than usual, lecturing Scarlett. ldquo;". . . land is the only thing in the world worth workinrsquo; for, worth fi ghtinrsquo; for, worth dying for, because land is the only thing that lasts"quot; Sarah Stonichrsquo;s family had once owned landmdash;an island in Lake Vermilion that was lost after the Depressionmdash;and while her father still managed to give his daughters the quintessential Minnesota cabin experience, it was on a patch of leased land. Long after her father passed away, a newly divorced Stonich fi nds herself yearning for a piece of land to call her own, that perfect spot on a lake, tall pines, a sense of permanence, a legacy for her son, and a connection to her paternal heritage. ldquo;Perfectrdquo; turns out to be roadless, raw wilderness near where her immigrant grandparents settled a century before and where the family name is now a postscript. Stonich recalls stories of her relatives, meets admirable and remarkable characters in the community, considers another go at love, and, finally, builds a small cabin. But when ldquo;progressrdquo; threatens to slice her precious patch of land in half, she must come to terms with the fact that a family legacy is no less valuable with or without a piece of earth. 160;Sarah Stonich is the author of the internationally acclaimed novels These Granite Islands and The Ice Chorus.