must read fiction books set in montana and by montana authors.
1. perma red by debra magpie earling
“On the reservation, danger lurks everywhere, springing from fear and anger, deprivation and poverty. Fiery-haired Louise White Elk dreams of both belonging and escape, and of discovering love and freedom on her own terms. but she is a beautiful temptation for three men, each more dangerous than the other, who will do anything to possess her…”
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2. wind from an enemy sky by d’arcy mcnickle
“A tragedy of good intentions gone hopelessly wrong, Wind from an Enemy Sky tells the story of Little Moose, a fictional Northwest tribe. Through the eyes of Antoine, grandson of the tribal leader, we see how the tribe tries to overcome its demoralization at the hands of the advance of white civilization.”
3. mountain 1948 by larry watson
“since the summer of my twelfth year I have carried a series of images more vivid and lasting than any other of my childhood and indelible beyond all the attempts that the years make to erase or fade them…” thus begins the story of what what happened to david hayden in montana in 1948. the events of that cataclysmic summer forever alter the way twelve-year-old david understands his family: his father, a small-town sheriff; his remarkably strong mother; David’s Uncle Frank, a war hero and respected doctor; and the Haydens’ Sioux housekeeper, Marie Little Soldier, whose revelations turn the family’s lives upside down when she recounts how Frank has been sexually abusing his Indian patients. As his story unfolds around David, he learns that the truth is not what you think it is, that power is abused, and that sometimes one has to choose between family loyalty and justice.”
4. swift prey by sid gustafson
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“It had been a long, snowy winter and spring. the rivers rose late and the mountains clung to a blanket of pure white snow. the rain fell on the deep winter snow the day before the flood of ’64. the waters rose, the rivers roared. the dam was unable to hold back the flow of birch creek and broke, giving way to a wall of water and drowning the indians. veterinarian alphonse vallerone dreams this novel of dreamers dreaming. goes back 50 years to the day after the flood, when he helped the surviving indigenous people. him riding from one devastated ranch to another, he tends to the surviving but devastated animals and tries to repair the pain caused by the flood. Backed by lingering, stark reminders of the Blackfeet Nation’s vibrant, tragic, and heroic past, Gustavson’s third novel chronicles the harrowing drama of the Blackfeet people. quick kill celebrates the homeland and the surviving natives as they have survived through time, dangerously. It is the story of a veterinarian trying to sustain and nurture life on earth, his empathy for the living and his sympathy for the dead and dying.”
5. copper sky by milana marsenich
“the feminine spirit of the west comes to life in early 20th century montana. Set in Camp Copper Butte, Montana in 1917, Copper Heaven tells the story of two women with opposite lives. Kaly Shane, mired in prostitution, struggles to find a safe home for her unborn child, while Marika Lailich, a Slavic immigrant, dodges an arranged marriage to become a doctor. As their paths cross and they become unlikely friends, neither knows the family secret that binds them together.”
6. a river runs through it by norman maclean
“populated with drunks, loggers, loan sharks, and prostitutes, and set in the small towns and trout streams and surrounding mountains of western montana, the stories deal with the intricacies of fly fishing, logging, fighting forest fires, playing crib, and being a husband, son, and father.”
7. fourth of july creek by smith henderson
“After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an eleven -year -old boy and almost wild boy who lives in the Montana desert, the social worker Pete Snow is face to face with the deeply disturbed father of the child, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete gradually gains the confidence of this paranoid survivor anxious for a final conflict that will indicate the end of the times that are coming. ”
8. english creek by ivan doig
“in this award-winning portrait of a time and place, montana in the 1930s, that both inspires and satisfies the yearning for an explainable past, ivan doig has created one of the most captivating families in american fiction , the mccaskills. .”
9. the big sky by a. b. guthrie
“Originally published over fifty years ago, the big sky is the first of a. b. The epic adventure novels of Guthrie Jr. set in the American West. Here features Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers: Traveling the Missouri River from St. louis to the rocky mountains, these frontiersmen live as hunters, traders, guides, and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of the great and wild places. Caught in the freedom and savagery of the desert, Warlord becomes an untamed mountain man, whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love.”
10. winter in the blood by james welch
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“During his lifetime, James Welch came to be considered a master of American prose, and his first novel, Winter in the Blood, is one of his most enduring works. The narrator of this beautiful, often haunting novel is a young Native American man who lives on the Fort Belknap reservation in Montana. Sensitive and self-destructive, he searches for something to tie him to the lands of his ancestors, but he is haunted by personal tragedy, the dissolution of his once-proud heritage, and the vast emptiness of Montana. Winter in the Blood is an evocative and unforgettable literary work that will continue to move and inspire anyone who encounters it.”
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