The Great Wide World Over There

I listened to this short story while making dinner tonight. It's a poignant look at a relatively isolated farm woman who cannot read.

Each day, her neighbor sashays to the mailbox and claims new letters, yet there are no letters for Cora Gibbs. Before Cora's nephew heads to college, he comes to stay fit the summer. Not to be outdone by her neighbor, Cora asks her nephew to both reach her to read and write letters out to the wide world.

The story looks at what reading is, how it connects us to the world, and how it isn't just a solitary experience as we do often think it is. The story is also about what being neighborly really means. Highly recommend!