Synopses & Reviews
The patriarch Gerhardt Praeger, a farmer of some education and experience, understands the mixture of hard work, ingenuity, ethic, grace, and sturdiness of spirit required to settle the hard territory of the Dakotas. He, along with his wife and seven sons, must constantly face natural disasters and manmade challenges to carve out their holdings in an unforgiving land that has defeated so many of
their neighbors, sending them home to their families back East.
Praeger believes God will provide sufficiently, if not in abundance, to those who can resist the twin challenges of pride and greedy over-reaching. But his exasperating new neighbor, the bold Beidermann, stirs both his envy and curiosity to test Praeger's moral imperatives.
His remarkable journal entries chronicle the increasingly tense events between them and are bridged by a compelling narrative that moves their entire universe toward calamity.
The result is an almost biblical story of self-revelation, of a man striving to guide his family and to civilize his own impulses as they contend with the wild land.
Review
"A beautifully written novel that offers strong character portrayals." Booklist
Review
"To read Lloyd Zimpel's superb new novel...A Season of Fire & Ice is to be reminded, in gripping detail, of the pride we can all take in immigrant American grit....This is a splendid book, and it belongs on every reader's bookshelf as a reminder of the forging of America." San Francisco Chronicle
Review
"Zimpel makes his mark reviving a lost generation through language....With Fire & Ice, Zimpel has crafted an elegant and memorable work of character-driven pioneer fiction. Let's hope we don't have to wait another 30 years to hear from him again." Denver Post
Synopsis
From the heartlands of the 1880s Upper Midwest comes a morality tale of survival and destiny told in the convincing language of a patriarch's journal, evoking a real sense of the time and place. Gerhardt Praeger, a farmer of some education and plenty experience, understands the mixture of hard work, ingenuity, ethic, grace and steadiness of spirit needed to hold his settler family and neighboring community together while homesteading the hard territory of the Dakotas. He, along with his wife and seven sons, must constantly contend with natural disasters and manmade challenges to carve out their holdings in an unforgiving environment that has defeated so many of their neighbors, sending them home to their families back east. Praeger believes that God will provide sufficiently if not in abundance to those who can resist over-reaching. But a new neighbor, the bold Beidermann, who seems at times almost larger than life, stirs both his curiosity and envy, and tests Praeger's moral beliefs. Between his remarkable journal entries that observe the increasingly tense events between them, is also a narrative that moves the everyone toward calamity. What results is an almost biblical story of moral imperatives and self-revelation, of man striving to civilize.
Synopsis
From the heartlands
of the 1880s
Upper Midwest
comes a morality tale
of survival and destiny.
About the Author
Lloyd Zimpel was born and raised in the Upper Midwest. He now lives in San Francisco, where for many years he worked for the California Fair Employment Practice Commission. He is the recipient of an NEA fiction fellowship and the author of a previous novel, Meeting the Bear, as well as numerous short stories.