The United States. Maine. Charles is a white man who was raised by a white mother and a Penobscot stepfather, the Penobscot being an indigenous people native to North America. After the passing of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act, in 1980, Charles, having not married into the tribe, is asked to leave and he finds himself living across the river from the place he once called home. He has a grown daughter, Elizabeth, with a Penobscot woman named Mary. Mary, however, left Charles when she was pregnant and Elizabeth thinks her Penobscot stepfather is her actual father. Morgan Talty’s debut novel is full of knotty relationships – Charles is also tasked with caring for his mother who has dementia – but he tells this tale using sober prose and with a skilful lightness of touch that really pulls readers into Charles’s world as connections between characters stretch, snap, heal and deepen in ways that never feel less than true. RM

Published by Impress Books