David Treuer

Prudence David Treuer

From a rising Native American writer, a haunting and unforgettable novel about love, loss, race, and desire in World War II–era America On a sweltering day in August 1942, Frankie Washburn returns to his familys 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 hes about to leave behind: his hovering mother, the distant father to whom hes been a disappointment, the Indian caretaker whos 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 who has 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, its 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, its about the secrets we choose to keep, the ones we cant help but tell, and who—and how—were allowed to love.