Quiet until the thaw
Fuller, Alexandra
"From bestselling memoirist Alexandra Fuller
a debut novel. Lakota Oglala Sioux Nation
South Dakota. Two Native American cousins
Rick Overlooking Horse and You Choose Watson
though bound by blood and by land
find themselves at odds as they grapple with the implications of their shared heritage. When escalating anger towards the injustices
historical and current
inflicted upon the Lakota people by the federal government leads to tribal divisions and infighting
the cousins go in separate directions: Rick chooses the path of peace; You Choose
violence. Years pass
and as You Choose serves time in prison
Rick finds himself raising twin baby boys
orphaned at birth
in his meadow. As the twins mature from infants to young men
Rick immerses the boys within their ancestry
telling wonderful and terrible tales of how the whole world came to be
and affirming their place in the universe as the result of all who have come before and will come behind. But when You Choose returns to the reservation after three decades behind bars
his anger manifests
forever disrupting the lives of Rick and the boys. A complex tale that spans generations and geography
Quiet Until the Thaw conjures with the implications of an oppressed history
how we are bound not just to immediate family but to all who have come before and will come after us
and
most of all
to the notion that everything was always
and is always
connected. As Fuller writes
"The belief that we can be done with our past is a myth. The past is nudging at us constantly.""--
Target Readership: