This Tender Land

by William Kent Krueger · 2016

Set in 1932 Minnesota, This Tender Land follows four orphaned children—Odie, his brother Albert, their mute friend Mose, and the heart‑broken Emmy—as they flee the brutal Lincoln Indian Training School. Stealing a canoe, they travel down the Gilead and Mississippi rivers during the Great Depression, encountering farmers, faith healers, displaced families, and other drifters. Their odyssey becomes a profound coming‑of‑age journey of survival, friendship, and the search for a place to belong, set against a richly rendered American landscape.