North
A Novel
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Award-winning author Brad Kessler’s North is a powerfully moving novel about the intertwined lives of a Vermont monk, a Somali refugee, and an Afghan war veteran by the author of the acclaimed memoir Goat Song.
Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Finalist for the Vermont Book Award
As a late spring blizzard brews, Brother Christopher, a cloistered monk at Blue Mountain Monastery in Vermont, rushes to tend to his Ida Red and Northern Spy apple trees in advance of the unseasonal snowstorm. When the storm lands a young Somali refugee, Sahro Abdi Muse, at the monastery, Christopher is pulled back into the world as his life intersects with Sahro’s and that of an Afghan war veteran in surprising and revealing ways.
North traces the epic journey of Sahro from her home in Somalia to South America, along the migrant route through Central America and Mexico, to New York City, and finally, her dangerous attempt to continue north to safety in Canada. It also compellingly traces the inner journeys of Brother Christopher, questioning his future in a world where the monastery way of life is waning, and of veteran Teddy Fletcher, seeking a way to make peace with his past.
Written in Brad Kessler’s sharp, beautiful, and observant prose, and grounded in the author’s own corner of Vermont, where there is a Carthusian monastery, a vibrant community of Somali asylum seekers, and a hole left after a disproportionate number of Vermont soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, North gives voice to these invisible communities, delivering a story of human connection in a time of displacement.
“A beautiful and moving tale, Kessler’s North is tender, dazzling, and wise.” —Pulitzer Prize–winning author Annie Dillard
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kessler's accomplished third novel (after the memoir Goat Song) traces the lives of three people who converge during a Vermont blizzard. Blue Mountain Monastery monk Christopher Gathreaux prays an unseasonable May snowstorm won't destroy his apple tree orchard. Meanwhile, Somalian refugee Sahro Abdi Muse makes her way from New York City to Canada after failing to gain asylum. Teddy Fletcher, a veteran of the War in Afghanistan and an amputee, rescues Sahro from the snowy roadside and delivers her to the monastery, where her arrival is met with mixed responses. As Brother Christopher attempts to acquaint his community with Sahro, he questions the relevancy of the monastery that's given him spiritual sanctuary for years. Teddy aches for atonement and a release from his wartime PTSD, while Sahro, whose searing African history and long journey to the U.S. is revealed in Kessler's confidently detailed, eloquent prose, finds the monastic shelter healing, though not a sanctuary from hostile attitudes toward immigrants. Kessler vividly renders the northern New England setting, a fitting backdrop to this emotive rendering of Sahro's experience coupled with two characters at odds with their pasts. The characters' moving stories coalesce into yet another winning effort from a consistently impressive writer.
