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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
A devastating fire and its aftermath; frontier violence present but not gratuitous
Language
Barely any
Mild period language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief romantic content in the context of marriage
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking in frontier settings
Emotional Intensity
Some
Grief, isolation, and the profound loneliness of a life lived at the edge of civilization
What this book is about
Robert Grainier is a laborer in the early twentieth-century American West. Johnson's novella spans decades of Grainier's solitary life — his love for a woman and child, their terrible loss, and his long endurance alone in the wilderness of Idaho. Lyrical, spare, and hauntingly beautiful, it reads like a American legend compacted into a few dozen pages.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Loss of family
Grief and solitude themes
Reader Verification
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