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. 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. The unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression. This story is as big-hearted as they come.” - Parade “If you liked Where the Crawdads Sing, you’ll love This Tender Land. Eve Taben, Elm Street Books, New Canaan, CT This novel is a must-read for all book clubs.” This Tender Land is a perfect novel for fans of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing. I was immediately engaged in this epic story about four orphans who embark on a life-changing odyssey in search of freedom, safety, and family during the Great Depression. “ This Tender Land is a modern classic that illuminates the desperate reality of a critical time in American history. Renee Barker, The Bookstore of Glen Ellyn, Glen Ellyn, IL Summer 2020 Reading Group Indie Next List Epic, thrilling, and beautifully written, this is storytelling at its very best.” Odie, his brother Albert, their schoolmate Mose, and newly orphaned Emmy are unforgettable characters in an unforgiving era. Louis to find their only known relative and a possible home. On the run from their school headmistress and the law, they encounter other wanderers and escapees from life as they canoe towards St.

It begins in an isolated Dickensian boarding school in Minnesota during the early years of the Depression, then morphs into the story of four runaways in a canoe à la Huckleberry Finn. “The work of a master storyteller about the making of a young storyteller, This Tender Land is a coming-of-age novel for the ages.

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