Clement and Angel are fraternal twins
separated at birth; they grow up in the same small, frontier logging town of
Stillwater, Minnesota. Clement was left at the orphanage. Angel was adopted by
the town’s richest couple, but is marked and threatened by her mother’s mental
illness. They rarely meet, but Clement knows if he is truly in need, Angel will
come to save him.
Stillwater, near the Mississippi River
and Canada, becomes an important stop on the Underground Railroad. As Clement
and Angel grow up and the country marches to war, their lives are changed by
many battles for freedom and by losses in the struggle for independence, large
and small.
Stillwater reveals the hardscrabble lives
of pioneers, nuns, squaws, fur trappers, loggers, runaway slaves and freedmen,
outlaws and people of conscience, all seeking a better, freer, more prosperous
future. It is a novel about mothers, about siblings, about the ways in which we
must take care of one another and let go of one another. And it’s brought to us
in Nicole Helget’s winning, gorgeous prose.
Publication
Date: February 4, 2014
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover; 336p
ISBN-10: 0547898207
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover; 336p
ISBN-10: 0547898207
Get the Book
Alibris | Amazon (Hardcover) | Amazon (Kindle) | Barnes & Noble (Hardcover)
| Barnes & Noble (Nook) |
Book Depository | Google Play | iTunes
******************************************
Five Questions for Nicole Helget
If you
could be any character from literature, who would it be?
I like
Clara Allen from Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry. In the first place,
she doesn’t even show up in the book until the last third of the novel, but all
the while, the reader knows of her and about her via the other main characters,
Gus and Woodrow. When she finally makes her appearance, she’s every bit as
remarkable as the two of them had suggested. She’s strong, running a horse
outfit in the middle of the West while her husband whithers away in an upstairs
bedroom. She’s also tender, taking in abandoned or lost travelers and healing
their wounded bodies and hearts. She’s witty and high-functioning, and she’s my
kind of woman.
What
appeals to you most about your chosen genre?
I like
to learn about historical events, and I have a fairly easy time recognizing
connections to modern events. I feel a deep connection to the domestic lives of
women from the past. I spend a lot of time cooking, cleaning, and caretaking.
These themes appeared in my earlier work of literary historical fiction, The
Turtle Catcher, too.
Also,
I also think that—had I the opportunity or choice to participate in the
creation of a new place, like the characters in Stillwater—I would have
taken it. I would have been the one to step forward with all my kids dripping
off me like sap. I would have been the woman who would have gotten in the boat
to cross an ocean. I would have been the woman who then piled the children into
a wagon. I would have been the one with the pioneer spirit, the one looking
west.
What
has been your greatest pleasure in writing Stillwater?
I have
a great time researching the past. I like to poke around libraries and
cemeteries and historical societies and places. I try to smell and taste and
see what life must have been like for pioneers, especially women. I did a lot
of that kind of visceral research for Stillwater.
Do
you have to be alone or have quiet to write?
Occasionally,
I do. I have six children and I teach full time at a community college. I write
while the kids (or the students) are all around me usually. But, often, near
the end of a project, I will need some concentrated quiet time to have an
overall look at the book. Then, I sometimes go and sit at a local pub called
Nakato in a back bar booth for a few hours. And, some other times, I’ll take a
weekend away to a place called the Anderson Center, which is in Red Wing, MN,
and is absolutely quiet. No tvs or anything there. I move between the desk and
the bed with my laptop and write pretty much constantly for two or three days.
I even sleep with the manuscript and computer on the bed and leave the light
on. At night, I wake up every couple of hours to continue working. It’s almost
like nursing a baby again!
What
is your favorite non-writing pastime?
I do
some painting and photography and a bit of needlework, too. My absolute
favorite thing to do, though, is be outside with my kids. I have six. My oldest
in 17 and my youngest is almost 4. We go for walks and hikes and wade in the
river a lot.
About the
Author
Born in 1976, NICOLE LEA HELGET grew up
on a farm in southern Minnesota, a childhood and place she drew on in the
writing of her memoir, The Summer of Ordinary Ways. She received her BA and an MFA
in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Based on the
novel’s first chapter, NPR’s Scott Simon awarded The Turtle Catcher the
Tamarack Prize from Minnesota Monthly.
Join
the Tour and the Fun
Tour Page: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/stillwatertour
Tour Hashtag: #StillwaterTourNext (and final) Stops!
Friday, March 7
Review at A Rose in the City
Review at Flashlight Commentary
