Synopses & Reviews
A haunting and unforgettable novel about love, loss, race, and desire in World War IIera America.
On a sweltering day in August 1942, Frankie Washburn returns to his family's rustic Minnesota resort for one last visit before he joins the war as a bombardier, headed for the darkened skies over Europe. Awaiting him at the Pines are those he's about to leave behind: his hovering mother; the distant father to whom he's been a disappointment; the Indian caretaker who's been more of a father to him than his own; and Billy, the childhood friend who over the years has become something much more intimate. But before the homecoming can be celebrated, the search for a German soldier, escaped from the POW camp across the river, explodes in a shocking act of violence, with consequences that will reverberate years into the future for all of them and that will shape how each of them makes sense of their lives.
With Prudence, Treuer delivers his most ambitious and captivating novel yet. Powerful and wholly original, it's a story of desire and loss and the search for connection in a riven world; of race and class in a supposedly more innocent era. Most profoundly, it's about the secrets we choose to keep, the ones we can't help but tell, and who and how we're allowed to love.
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“Treuer's writing is supple, his story intricate. That it's set against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in history makes it all the more haunting and powerful.” Out
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“David Treuer's experience writing about Native American history and culture is apparent in this analysis of race and memory.” Huffington Post
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“Magnetizing and richly original…[with] extraordinarily affecting characters.…Treuer's trenchant and compassionate novel glimmers with nature's potent beauty, fresh historical detail, and scrupulous insight.” Booklist (starred review)
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“Achingly moving…speaks volumes about…integrity, culpability, and resilience in the face of collective tragedy.” Publishers Weekly
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“A self-assured, absorbing story…[that] explores the darkness at our cores.” Kirkus Reviews
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“Thoughtful and engaging.…[A] well-told tale with realistically portrayed characters…[and] a voice that is low key but forceful…[and] elevate[s] this story to a powerful level.” Library Journal
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"David Treuer's novel Prudence is a wondrous and mesmerizing narrative — intricate, seductive and wholly gratifying." Toni Morrison
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"Prudence is an excellent, page-turning mystery, and at the same time delves deeply into characters whose lives are rarely portrayed in our literature. David Treuer is a truly original and necessary voice in American fiction." Dan Chaon
About the Author
David Treuer is Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. The author of three previous novels and two books of nonfiction, he has also written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Slate, and The Washington Post, among others. He has a Ph.D. in anthropology and teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California.