Where the Heart Is was published in 1995 and is the first novel by award winning American novelist Billie Letts. The novel is set in Letts’s home state of Oklahoma and follows the story of teenager Novalee Nation and her ne’er-do-well boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens. The novel was chosen as a selection for Oprah’s Book Club in December of 1998. It also won the Walker Percy Award in 1994. The novel was made into a movie in 2000 starring Natalie Portman as Novalee Nation and Ashley Judd as Lexie Coop.

This study guide is based on the 2015 Hachette Book Group, Inc. Kindle ebook.

Content Warning: This guide contains references to substance addiction and sexual assault, which are discussed in Where the Heart Is.

Plot Summary

Novalee Nation is 17 years old and seven months pregnant as she travels from Tellico Plains, Tennessee to Bakersfield, California with her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens. They are in Oklahoma when Novalee realizes she has lost the only pair of shoes she brought with her. She convinces Willy Jack to stop at a Walmart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma so she can buy some more. However, when Novalee returns to the parking lot, Willy Jack is gone.

Novalee spends the day in front of the Walmart, unsure where to go or what to do. She meets three kind people: Sister Husband, the town welcome wagon; Benny Goodluck, the son of the local nursery owner; and Moses Whitecotton, a local photographer. When the Walmart closes, Novalee is so overwhelmed with her situation that she becomes sick in the bathroom. By the time she feels better, she has been locked in the empty store.

For the next two months, Novalee sleeps in the store and spends her days wandering around the town. She meets Forney Hull, the brother of the local librarian, and develops a friendship. One night, she goes into labor and Forney breaks a window to get into the Walmart to deliver her baby. In the hospital, Novalee and her new daughter, Americus, find they have become local celebrities. Even Walmart founder Sam Walton comes to meet Novalee and offer her a job at the store.

When Novalee is released from the hospital, Sister Husband takes her into her home. Novalee quickly befriends the neighbors and finds she has a whole stable of babysitters willing to care for Americus. She also develops a friendship with one of her nurse’s aides, Lexie Coop. Novalee begins working at Walmart and pursues photography with help from Moses.

When Americus is seven months old, she is kidnapped from Sister Husband’s home by religious fanatics who learned about her from the press surrounding her birth. Americus is found, but the experience leaves Novalee unsettled. Novalee has always had a superstition about sevens, and she is frightened every time that number comes up in Americus’s life.

When Americus is three, Novalee wins a photography award for a picture she took of Benny Goodluck, a local boy, running naked on Rattlesnake Ridge. At the same time, Willy Jack arrives in Nashville after a stint in prison and begins a music career based on the success of a song he wrote called “The Beat of the Heart”.

Americus is about five when a bad storm hits Sequoyah. A tornado destroys Sister Husband’s trailer, causing injuries that kill her. Novalee is shocked when she learns Sister Husband left everything to her. While the trailer is gone, Novalee gets the payouts for both the trailer insurance and Sister Husband’s life insurance. She uses the money to build the first home she’s ever had that doesn’t have wheels. Not long after, she begins taking jobs as a photographer.

Willy Jack is sued for copyright infringement on his song by Claire Hudson who claims her son, Finny, wrote it. Ruth Meyers, his agent, learns Willy Jack tried to hire another agent, so she releases him from his contract. Willy Jack tries to keep his music career going but fails and becomes addicted to alcohol and drugs. He has an accident on a train track and loses both legs.

Novalee is home organizing her negatives when Brummett, Lexie’s oldest child, calls asking for help. Novalee discovers that Lexie’s boyfriend sexually assaulted Brummett and his little sister, Pauline, and beat Lexie nearly to death. Novalee moves Lexie and her five kids into Novalee’s home and helps them get back on their feet. A short time later, Forney’s sister dies in a fire, and Forney goes home to Maine to bury her. When he comes back, he expresses a desire to be with Novalee, but she thinks he deserves better and pushes him away. He ends up moving to Chicago.

Not long after Americus’ seventh birthday, Novalee discovers that Willy Jack was attempting to find them. She goes to see him, accuses him of attempting to kidnap Americus, but then feels sorry for him and agrees to drive him back to Tennessee. Before leaving, she calls Forney to tell him she lied about not loving him.