Out on the western plains, two paths cross: those of a young woman running away from home and a Cheyenne girl running for her life. They're both on a heroic quest, though more than a hundred years separate their journeys.

After her mother's sudden death, Erin Douglass is virtually alone in the world. When she witnesses the exhumation of a Cheyenne girl along the side of a dirt road, life in her Montana town indelibly changes. The girl's remains, gently wrapped in a faded army coat, with silver thimbles on her right hand, are more than a hundred years old. Though her father makes every attempt to keep the discovery quiet, Erin is haunted by questions: How did this young girl end up here, in the middle of nowhere, with no marker and all alone? Who was she?

Together with Charlie White Bird, a young member of her father's road crew from the nearby reservation, Erin is determined to protect her burial ground. She and Charlie meet in secret, knowing that their encounters could threaten their divided communities. But as their commitment to their cause becomes more passionate, so, too, does their relationship. When Erin is faced with a crisis she feels she must bear alone, she runs away. With her mother's old suitcase and her granddad's journals on the Indian wars, she sets out, and as she moves farther from home, the Cheyenne girl's story vividly unfolds in her mind, guiding her toward another way out of her predicament.

Sweeping and evocative, Useful Girlreminds us that the past, no matter how deeply buried, is never far from view. It is a testament to the power of the imagination and a novel of heartrending beauty.

"The life of a contemporary young woman runs parallel to that of an 1870s Cheyenne girl in Stevens's affecting, accomplished second novel (after 2002's well-received Curve of the World). Erin Douglass, 17, and her detached father, Jack, are mourning the loss of her mother ('Without her, we were an inexplicable pairing, two unconnectable dots'). The rift widens when the remains of a Cheyenne girl are discovered at Jack's construction company's work site, and Jack callously orders his workers to cover them up to avoid an expensive halt to the job. Charlie White Bird, one of the workers, is offended by Jack's disrespect and enlists Erin's cooperation to rectify the situation. They soon begin an affair that is forbidden both by Erin's father and the racially divided society of rural Montana. As Erin's problems snowball, she becomes increasingly interested in the Cheyenne girl, whom she and Charlie name Mo'�©'ha'e. Meanwhile, she is reading about the Indian wars, as recorded in her grandfather's notes for a family history, and she images the life of Mo'�©'ha'e while learning about her own family's role in the settling of the West. Eventually compelled to flee both her father and Charlie, Erin embarks on a bleak hitchhiking trip with no fixed destination in mind. Stevens skillfully juxtaposes the stories of Erin and Mo'�©'ha'e, drawing a clear connection between them. The descriptions of late 19th-century battles and living conditions are unsettling in their vivid and authentic detail, riveting even the least historically minded reader, and the account of Erin's plight is clear-eyed and uncompromising. Writing with compassion and grace, Stevens delivers a timeless story of brutality and forgiveness. Author tour. (Apr. 30)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

andquot;Through authenticity of detail and compassionate heart, Marcus Stevens's Useful Girlgrants us this truth: stories are the sparks of our ancestors' lives, the embers we blow on to illuminate our own.andquot;

and#8212;Jane Kirkpatrick, author of Every Fixed Starand A Name of Her Own

After her mother dies suddenly, seventeen-year-old Erin is virtually alone in the world. Her reserved father doesn't know how to relate to his only daughter now that his wife is gone. When Erin accompanies him to his construction site on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, she witnesses something that changes everything. Charlie White Bird, one of her father's workers, discovers the 127-year-old remains of a young Cheyenne girl, wrapped in a faded blue army coat; on each finger of her right hand is a silver thimble. Moehae, as Erin and Charlie come to name her, captures their imagination, and together they secretly try to protect her burial ground. As their commitment to their cause becomes more passionate, so, too, does their relationship, which they must also keep secret. When Erin discovers she's pregnant, she feels she has no other choice but to run away. With her mother's old suitcase and her granddad's journals on the Indian wars, she sets out, and as she moves farther from home, Moehae's story vividly unfolds in her mind, guiding her toward another way out of her predicament.

Evocative and sweeping in scope, Useful Girlis at once a love story, a young woman's heroic quest, and a moving testament to the power of the imagination.

On the plains of Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas, two paths unexpectedly cross: that of a 17-year-old girl running away from home and that of a young Cheyenne girl running for her life.

Marcus Stevens lives on a farm outside Bozeman, Montana, with his wife and three children. He attended the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Los Angeles before he began his career as an award-winning commercial director. He has traveled widely in Africa.