Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages

An American Fiction by Sara Rath Set in Wisconsin's Northwoods

Dec 21, 2008

Sara Rath's Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages is set on a fictional chain of lakes in Wisconsin's northwoods where the death of one person renews another's life.

Hannah Swann leaves the relative safety found in Madison’s sixty-nine square miles venturing deep into the dark northwoods of Wisconsin to claim a set of dilapidated cottages and a bar left by Uncle Hal. This first novel by Sara Rath, Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages is a mysterious adventure in search of lost convictions, family connections and true love.

Hannah Swann Story

Hannah Swann clashes with an international mining company who is attempting to take over land surrounding the fictional Star Lake, part of a chain of lakes in Northern Wisconsin. While coming to grips with the death of Uncle Hal, she must decide what is most valuable and worth the battle.

Meanwhile, she tries to keep separate her life in Madison and the temporary one started at Star Lake. The married boyfriend appears, allowing nothing to go back the way it was and, well, small towns being what they are, everyone knows.

Hannah meets Dan Kerry who seems to have known Hal Larkin better than she did, in recent years. Another main character, Babe, also part of the inheritance, is Hannah’s constant companion and protector from beginning to end.

American Fiction in Northern Wisconsin

Life in Northern Wisconsin rings true and will be familiar to readers who have visited a lake cottage during summer in a northern state. The descriptions of screened sleeping porches, scents of pine and cedar, the feel of soft flannel, loons calling and eagles swooping while wooden oars are pulled through the water will bring these reminders alive. For readers who have never been in such places, the vivid dialogue and characters will spark the imagination.

Rath’s book does not stop there, leaving just as warm temperatures drop with the fall leaves. The story continues throughout the year, capturing the adventures found living all year long in the cold north.

Author Sara Rath

Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages is Sara Rath’s first novel; her newest novel, Night Sisters was published in 2008. In addition, she has five nonfiction and four volumes of poetry books published.

Rath’s fourth collection of poems, Dancing With a Cowboy was published by Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, 1991, and out in paperback, February, 2008. The Complete Pig May, 2000, and in paperback, 2004, followed The Complete Cow, 1998, and published in paperback, 2003.

Sara Rath lives with her husband in Spring Green, Wisconsin, in the Wisconsin River Valley. Spring Green is west and slightly north of Madison, Wisconsin.

The copyright of the article Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages in Modern American Fiction is owned by Christine Eirschele. Permission to republish Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.