Mattie and Frank

A natural disaster, time, and chance conspire to lead a group of small-town Midwesterners into unimagined possibilities in this poignant and funny novel of growing, moving, and longing for home.

When twelve-year-old Meg volunteers to play music at a nursing home, it’s clear that the staff and residents, especially the ornery and flirtatious Mattie and Frank, are far more interesting than the organ she can barely play. Immersed in the ribald rhythm of their stories, jokes, and complaints, she stumbles into an adulthood that is suddenly upended by a violent tornado that flattens her Minnesota suburb, along with the families and tenuous homes built there. As residents find themselves adrift, trapped, or orphaned, they all subsequently embark on radically different paths in a late-sixties America that is just as unmoored.

Meeting again years later, circumstance forces Meg, Mattie, Frank, and struggling musician T. Lane to solve a problem they all share-homelessness (real or imagined). As the four disparate characters redefine the term family, they also reckon with the unexpected arcs of their lives.

This is an earthy, touching, and funny tale of a journey across time and circumstance. Author Katherine Dieter has crafted an affecting story steeped in dialog and memory that is both unforgettable and gently surprising.