The wilderness doesn't forgive weakness. In Ridgwell Cullum's 1927 frontier drama, the Canadian north becomes a character itself: brutal, indifferent, and hauntingly beautiful. Luana, a half-Indian nurse, has spent her life navigating between worlds, and when tragedy strikes aboard a returning train, she finds herself bound to young Ivan Steele by something stronger than blood. Their journey into the wilds is really a descent into a world where men are tested by cold, isolation, and the darkness in each other. Meanwhile, Pideau Estevan, a half-breed cattle thief now responsible for an infant daughter, grapples with what it means to choose between survival and humanity. The paths of these wounded people converge in a landscape that demands everything from those who live in it. For readers who cherish early 20th-century adventure fiction that treats its frontier setting with unsentimental honesty.
