KatieMc

Somewhere in the past few months I got in the library queue for this book and when it came available, I had no recollection of how it came to my attention. I almost let it slip by when I decided to give it a quick listen, just to justify moving onto something else. Happy surprise, The Wisdom of the Earth turned out to be pretty excellent. It's a coming of age story wrapped in a semi-historical (I have a hard time thinking of 1985 has historical) setting with themes of environmental stewardship, family, healing, acceptance, community, outsiders and homophobic attitudes. It's filled with both simple and complex characters, and portrays the tension that can happen in a small community with divided loyalties.

This is a debut book for Christopher Scotton who seems to have a vibrant career that has nothing to do with writing or publishing novels. And reading his author bio, he seems to have channeled many formative experiences into The Wisdom of the Earth. Here's to hoping that he is not a one hit-wonder.