Kate's Path

Kate’s Path is Vivian McDermott’s touching novel about one woman’s search for stability, happiness, and family—with a bit of Montana history thrown in.

Kate’s life crumbles when her husband, Charlie, dies in a tragic accident—and in the depths of that grief, she finds out that she’s pregnant. She packs up the pieces of her life and moves back home with her parents.

Just before Karly, Kate’s daughter, turns two, Kate decides to move to the city to finish her education. There, Kate meets Amanda, another single mother looking for a buoy in the storm. Alone and desperate for support, they hatch a plan that sounds crazy: What if they team up and form a household for their two baby girls? They combine their lives and their resources, and the next twenty years pass in peace and prosperity.

Now, with their daughters moving out and Amanda’s recent engagement, Kate plans a trip to fend off the sadness of an empty nest: cycling across the state of Montana. Over the course of her journey, Kate will meet new people and learn new things—but she’ll also have to face her past, including the in-laws she lost along with Charlie.

Vivian McDermott is a native Montanan, born in Culbertson. She graduated from Conrad High School, completed her degree at Montana State University in Bozeman, and raised her three sons in Shelby, where she and her husband have lived for more than forty years.