The High Divide

This new work from Enger (Undiscovered Country) is about a journey—actually, several journeys, all undertaken in 1886 by members of the Pope family. First the father, Ulysses, abandons his family in western Minnesota without explanation for what is revealed to be a stunning moral quest; then sons Eli and little Danny seek him out; and finally wife Gretta heads into the Montana Badlands looking for her sons, her husband, and the truth about her marriage and whether she has been an understanding wife. Along the way, the narrative asks us to consider the consequences of our actions, whether we're willing to answer for them, and whether we would sacrifice even what we love to make things right with the world. At the same time, it affectingly captures the social and environmental degradation of the late 1880s, a time when a reduced native population was being forcibly confined to reservations and the buffalo was being hunted nearly to extinction.