Baptism for the Dead

A Mormon woman in a secluded Idaho town casts aside her duties to church and family to follow a wandering artist through the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains.


Lyrical and hypnotic, Baptism for the Dead is an unflinching examination of faith and its lack; of love, obligation, and the transformative power of art. A paean to the landscape and culture of the American West, from the author of Tidewater.


Praise for Tidewater:


A sweeping story, incredibly detailed… A raw but honest depiction of this fascinating woman.

– Historical Novel Review


Hawker vividly captures the beauty and tragedy of the first contact [between] European and Native American cultures.

– Michael Wallace, author of The Righteous