About the book
The Bones of Paradise: A Novel
Copyright:
2016
William Morrow
ISBN-13: 978-0062413475
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Copyright:
2017
William Morrow Paperbacks;
Reprint edition
ISBN-13: 978-0062413482
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by Jonis Agee
A multigenerational family saga set in the unforgiving Nebraska Sand
Hills in the years following the massacre at Wounded Knee—an ambitious
tale of history, vengeance, race, guilt, betrayal, family, and
belonging, filled with a vivid cast of characters shaped by violence,
love, and a desperate loyalty to the land.
At the center of The Bones of Paradise are two remarkable
women. Dulcinea, returned after bitter years of self-exile, yearns for
redemption and the courage to mend her broken family and reclaim the
land that is rightfully hers. Rose, scarred by the terrible slaughters
that have decimated and dislocated her people, struggles to accept the
death of her sister, Star, and refuses to rest until she is avenged.
A kaleidoscopic portrait of misfits, schemers, chancers, and
dreamers, Jonis Agee’s bold novel is a panorama of America at the dawn
of a new century. A beautiful evocation of this magnificent,
blood-soaked land—its sweeping prairies, seas of golden grass, and sandy
hills, all at the mercy of two unpredictable and terrifying forces,
weather and lawlessness—and the durable men and women who dared to tame
it. Intimate and epic, The Bones of Paradise is a remarkable
achievement: a mystery, a tragedy, a romance, and an unflagging
exploration of the beauty and brutality, tenderness and cruelty that
defined the settling of the American West.
Reviews
“A deceptively leisurely, intensely heart-rending historical about
greed and love gone wrong . . . Rose and Dulcinea are women strong enough to
cow John Wayne. . . .[in] this sexy, violent, intricate Western.”
—
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“From the opening image of a ‘windmill slowly clanking in a wobbly
circle’ to the sublime final sentence, Jonis Agee’s The Bones of Paradise
is a beautifully written epic that seamlessly intertwines a family’s history
with a region’s, and, ultimately, with a nation’s. This is an ambitious
novel.” —
Ron Rash, New York Times bestselling author of
Above the Waterfall
“Agee’s fast-paced narrative resembles the expansive prose of Larry
McMurtry. Her lyrical writing and attention to detail evoke comparisons to
Annie Proulx. . . . A captivating tale of life―and death―in the old American
West.” —
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