LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDWINNER OF THE OREGON BOOK AWARDS' KEN KESEY AWARD
FOR FICTIONA wildly original cross-country novel that subverts a long tradition of family
narratives and casts new light on the mythologies national individual and collective that
drive and define us.On the day of their estranged father's wedding half sisters Cheyenne and
Livy set off to claim their inheritance. It's been years since the two have seen each other.
Cheyenne is newly back in Seattle crashing with Livy after a failed marriage and a series of
dead ends. Livy works refinishing boats her resentment against her freeloading sister growing
as she tamps down dreams of fishing off the coast of Alaska. But the promise of a shot at
financial security brings the two together to claim what's theirs. Except instead of money
what their father gives them is information a name which both reveals a stunning family secret
and compels them to come to grips with it. In the face of their new reality the sisters and
their adopted brother each set out on journeys that will test their faith in one another as
well as their definitions of freedom. Moving from Seattle's underground to the docks of the Far
North from the hideaways of the southern swamps to the storied reaches of the Great Offshore
Grounds Vanessa Veselka spins a tale with boundless verve linguistic vitality and undeniable
tenderness.
