Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 464 pages
Audiobook Length: 14 hours and 19 minutes
First Published: 2019
View in Goodreads
Buy on Amazon
Publisher’s Description
The unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.
In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
Quotes from This Tender Land
Of all that we’re asked to give others in this life, the most difficult to offer may be forgiveness.
The beauty isn’t in the jewel itself, but in the way the light shines through it.
Open yourself to every possibility, for there is nothing your heart can imagine that is not so.
Love comes in so many forms, and pain is no different.
About William Kent Krueger
William Kent Krueger is the author whose works include This Tender Land and Ordinary Grace. He currently lives in the Twin Cities. Visit the author’s website →
Featured In
