Winner, National Outdoor Book Award
"Part quest, part rebirth, Heacox's debut novel spins a story of
Alaska's Tlingit people and the land, an old man dying, and a young man
learning to live."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A splendid, unique gem of a novel."
--Library Journal (starred review)
"Heacox does a superb job of transcending his characters' unique
geography to create a heartwarming, all-American story."
--Booklist
"What makes this story so appealing is the character Old Keb. He is as
finely wrought and memorable as any character in contemporary literature
and energizes the tale with a humor and warmth that will keep you
reading well into the night."
--National Outdoor Book Awards
Old Keb Wisting is somewhere around ninety-five years old (he lost count
awhile ago) and in constant pain and thinks he wants to die. He also
thinks he thinks too much. Part Norwegian and part Tlingit Native ("with
some Filipino and Portuguese thrown in"), he's the last living canoe
carver in the village of Jinkaat, in Southeast Alaska.
When his grandson, James, a promising basketball player, ruins his leg
in a logging accident and tells his grandpa that he has nothing left to
live for, Old Keb comes alive and finishes his last canoe, with help
from his grandson. Together (with a few friends and a crazy but likeable
dog named Steve) they embark on a great canoe journey. Suddenly all of
Old Keb's senses come into play, so clever and wise in how he reads the
currents, tides, and storms. Nobody can find him. He and the others
paddle deep into wild Alaska, but mostly into the human heart, in a
story of adventure, love, and reconciliation. With its rogue's gallery
of colorful, endearing, small-town characters, this book stands as a
wonderful blend of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and
John Nichols's The Milagro Beanfield War, with dashes of John
Steinbeck thrown in.
