"Where The Heart Is" is a novel by Billie Letts that follows the lives of Novalee Nation, Willy Jack Picken, and their daughter Americus Nation for a period of seven years in the 1980s and early 1990s. The book dramatizes in detail the tribulations of lower-income and foster children in the United States .
The novel opens with Novalee and Willy Jack traveling from Tennessee to California, where Willy Jack claims he was promised by his cousin, J. Paul, a job working at a train yard. Novalee is 17, 7 months pregnant, and superstitious about 7’s. They stop at a Walmart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma to buy some shoes for Novalee. While she is in the bathroom, Willy Jack abandons her with no money or car.
Novalee finds herself stranded at the Walmart with just $7.77 in change. But she is about to discover hidden treasures in this small Southwest town--a group of down-to-earth, deeply caring people willing to help a homeless, jobless girl living secretly in a Walmart.
