This Tender Land

This Tender Land is a coming-of-age adventure novel by William Kent Krueger, published in 2019. As historical fiction, the novel follows four central characters on a physical and spiritual journey through the Depression-era Midwestern United States. Krueger describes This Tender Land as a companion novel to his 2014 novel, Ordinary Grace, though each can be read independently. Krueger first gained widespread acclaim for his debut novel, Iron Lake. The first novel in his Cork O'Connor detective series, Iron Lake was followed by several O'Connor novels, including Boundary Waters, Lightning Strike, and Fox Creek. His 2023 novel, The River We Remember, was nominated for several awards, including the Edgar Award for Best Novel.

Plot Summary

Part 1 introduces Odie O’Banion, the narrator, and his older brother, Albert, who are sent to a Native American boarding school in Fremont County, Minnesota, following the death of their father, although they are White. Over the four years they attend the school, Odie becomes known as a troublemaker while Albert earns the trust of Mrs. Brickman, the school’s harsh superintendent. They become friends with Mose, an orphaned boy whose tongue was cut out when he was a child, as well as Mrs. Frost, a kind widow who teaches at the school, and her daughter, Emmy.

Mrs. Frost offers to adopt Odie, Albert, and Mose, but she is killed by a tornado a day later. The day of her funeral, Odie is sentenced to solitary confinement for leaving school property. That night, Vincent DiMarco, the school disciplinarian who is known by the students as a sexual predator, leads Odie to a nearby quarry, intending to kill him for standing up to him earlier. Odie escapes, causing DiMarco to fall to his death in the quarry. Odie, Albert, and Mose decide to run away. Before leaving, they visit Mr. Brickman, threatening to reveal his affair with one of the teachers to Mrs. Brickman, who is out of town. They end up knocking out Mr. Brickman and taking the contents of his safe, including money and documents. At her request, they also take Emmy with them.

In Part 2, they all set off down the Gilead River in Mrs. Frost’s canoe. One night, they take refuge in a shed during a storm. The next morning, they are discovered by the shed’s owner, Jack, who puts Albert, Odie, and Mose to work on his farm at gunpoint. Over the next few days, Odie comes to feel sorry for Jack, whose wife and daughter left him, but he remains wary of Jack’s violent temper. One night, when Jack gets angry with Emmy, Albert confronts him. Convinced that Jack is about to shoot Albert, Odie shoots Jack with Mr. Brickman’s gun. They leave Jack for dead.

In Part 3, Odie and his companions encounter and then join a religious revival run by a woman known as Sister Eve. Each night, Sister Eve apparently heals people who come to the stage. When Odie sees Sid, the revival’s manager, paying a fee to some of the people who claimed to be healed on stage, he confronts Sister Eve. During their confrontation, a rattlesnake that is used in some of the revival’s shows escapes and bites Albert. Odie is distressed to discover that he threw away Sid’s antivenom, thinking it was drugs. As Albert’s condition worsens, Odie appeals to Sister Eve to heal him, but she explains that Albert can only be healed if he has faith. Albert remains skeptical, but he survives until more antivenom arrives. Shortly after a newspaper features a picture of Albert, the Brickmans arrive in town. Odie, Albert, Mose, and Emmy set off downstream.

Part 4 sees new tensions arise between Odie and his companions. When Odie is separated from the others, he makes his way to a shantytown and befriends a family named the Schofields, even falling in love with Maybeth Schofield. The Schofields are on their way to Chicago after losing their Kansas farm, but their car is broken, and they lack the funds to buy gas. Odie convinces Albert to fix their car, and he gives them money to buy gas, enabling them to leave. At the same time, guided by a mentor named Hawk Flies at Night, Mose learns about injustices perpetrated against his Sioux relatives and ancestors, driving a wedge between him and the others. They leave when they learn that the Brickmans are not far behind.

In Part 5, Odie, Albert, Mose, and Emmy arrive in St. Paul, where they are taken in by Gertie Hellman and her partner Flo, who run a café. They quickly make friends and find work, both in the café and on the waterfront. One day, Odie is surprised to run into Jack, who miraculously survived and turned his life around. Albert, Mose, and Emmy decide to stay in St. Paul, much to Odie’s disappointment. Without telling the others, he catches a train headed south.

As Part 6 opens, Odie finds himself in an unfamiliar place, and he manages to escape two leering men thanks to advice given to him weeks earlier by Emmy, who has a gift for seeing the future. Odie finally arrives in St. Louis and tracks down the woman he knows as Aunt Julia. Over the next few days, he learns that Julia is his mother and that she gave birth to him in the brothel that she now oversees. The Brickmans arrive, and Odie learns that Mrs. Brickman once worked in Julia’s brothel, then betrayed Julia and later killed the man Odie knew as his father. Julia and Mrs. Brickman fight, then fall out a window, leaving Mrs. Brickman dead and Julia in a coma. As Odie watches over her in the hospital, he is joined by Albert, Mose, Emmy, and Sister Eve. Sister Eve encourages him to imagine the ending he desires.

An Epilogue sketches out the characters’ subsequent lives—among them, Julia survives her coma and opens a dress shop, Odie marries Maybeth Schofield, and Emmy stays with Sister Eve, who teaches her to use her abilities for good—as Odie reflects on his past. As Odie experiences new circumstances and meets new people throughout the novel, his views on God and spirituality evolve. He initially blames God for the bad things that happen, but he gradually moves toward a more hopeful philosophy, with a sense of acceptance for the good and bad parts of life’s journey.