A brilliant and wonderfully reviewed first novel: the story of two sisters and the man who enters both their lives.

During the worst of the prairie dust bowl of the 1930's, a young man appears out of a blizzard, and two sisters' lives are changed forever. Norma Joyce Hardy is the dark and lonely girl whose boldness and cunning prove so seductive; against her vivid, tricky personality, the beautiful and saintly Lucinda can barely hold her own. A Student of Weather traces their rivalry over decades to the century's end. In this gorgeous novel, Elizabeth Hay lays bare the lasting imprint on the human heart of physical landscape, family rivalries, and first love.

"[An] enormously moving first novel.... An unsentimental testament to resilience and mettle.... A triumphant novel." --Newsday

"[A] novel with passionate, urgent grace." --Boston Globe

"Beautiful and excited in every way-in character, and theme, setting Elizabeth Hay firmly in the company of such other writers as Margaret Atwood and Carol Shields." --New Orleans Times-Picayune