In the summer of 1850, a man steps alone onto a northern California beach, watches his ship disappear over the horizon, and walks into the redwood forest with nothing but a rifle and an axe. That man is John Cardigan, and this is the story of his conquest of a valley filled with the tallest trees on earth and the empire he builds there. Half a century of ambition, heartbreak, and ecological wonder unfolds through Cardigan and his son Bryce, as they battle rivals, corrupt politicians, and each other for control of the giants. A French-Canadian lumberjack named Jules Rondeau emerges as Bryce's greatest adversary and perhaps his only true equal, their conflict stretching across decades and culminating in a struggle that will determine the valley's fate. Kyne writes with the breathless momentum of a man who saw these trees and wanted readers to see them too, his prose alternating between intimate family drama and breathtaking encounters with nature. The novel asks what we owe the land, what we owe each other, and whether any empire built on giants can survive the passage of time. It is the American dream rendered in bark and blood.
