Cloudmaker

A teenager in Depression-era Montana with finds danger and adventure with a gangster's watch in this coming-of-age tale.

From the nationally bestselling author of Painted Horses, Malcolm Brooks returns with a soaring, spirited novel set during the summer of Amelia Earhart's final flight—a tale of American ingenuity and optimism set against the backdrop of a deepening Great Depression . . .


The summer of 1937 will be a turning point for fourteen-year-old Houston "Huck" Finn. When he and a friend find a dead body in a local creek, a rare Lindbergh flight watch on its wrist, it seems like a sign. Huck is building his own airplane, a fact he has concealed from his mother. That summer also marks the arrival of his cousin Annelise, sent to live with the family under mysterious circumstances. As it turns out, she has had flying lessons—another sign. As Huck's airplane takes shape, so does his burgeoning understanding of the world, including the battle over worldliness vs. godliness that has split Annelise from her family, and, in a quieter way, divides Huck's family too. And meanwhile, there's the matter of the watch, which it turns out the dead man's cohort of bank robbers would very much like back.


In Brooks' trademark "lush, breathtaking prose" (San Francisco Chronicle on Painted Horses) and with a winking nod to the Sam Clemens who inspired its hero's nickname, Cloudmaker is a boisterous, heartfelt novel that brings to life the idealism, inventiveness, traditionalism, and deep contradictions of the American spirit.

Praise for Cloudmaker

"A sweeping yet personal coming-of-age story. . . . Evocative . . . in pitch-perfect dialect that will immerse readers firmly in Brooks's beloved American West." —Shelf Awareness

"With a nod to Ivan Doig's straightforward folksy style, this impressive second novel . . . tells an earnest, heartfelt family story with laugh-out-loud humor, deep-seated family conflicts, and distressing coming-of-age crises. Enthusiastically recommended." —Library Review (starred review)


"Tender friendships and passionate pursuits combine in Cloudmaker—a rich, evocative, soaring novel rooted in particulars and populated with characters so nuanced and real you can't help but admire and miss them long after you've turned the last page." —Erin Lindsay McCabe, author of USA Today bestseller I Shall Be Near To You

"Epic in scope, beautifully crafted in its prose, and always—always—adoring of its cast of unforgettable characters, Cloudmaker is a stunner of a novel. A book that absolutely soars." —Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and Little Faith