Kent Haruf, acclaimed novelist who chronicled small-town intrigue, dies at 71

[truebluefan]

Kent Haruf, who faced a series of publishing rejections before emerging at 41 as an acclaimed novelist of small-town intrigue and fragile community bonds in books such as “Plainsong” and “Where You Once Belonged,” died Nov. 30 at his home in Salida, Colo. He was 71.

His publisher, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, confirmed the death and said the cause was cancer.

Mr. Haruf (whose name rhymes with “sheriff”) was a Methodist preacher’s son and grew up in a family of book lovers. He attended a prestigious writers workshop in Iowa but struggled to interest publishers in his prose. He took a series of menial jobs to support his wife and three daughters.

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