About the Book
About the Book
Crow Mary
The New York Times bestselling author of the “touching” (The Boston Globe) book club classics THE KITCHEN HOUSE and the “emotionally rewarding” (Booklist) GLORY OVER EVERYTHING returns with a sweeping saga inspired by the true story of Crow Mary --- an indigenous woman torn between two worlds in 19th-century North America.
In 1872, 16-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and they set off on the long trip to his trading post in the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, she finds a fast friend in a Métis named Jeannie; makes a lifelong enemy in a wolfer named Stiller; and, despite learning a dark secret of Farwell’s past, falls in love with her husband.
The winter trading season passes peacefully. Then, on the eve of their return to Montana, a group of drunken whiskey traders slaughters 40 Nakota --- despite Farwell’s efforts to stop them. Mary, hiding from the hail of bullets, sees the murderers, including Stiller, take five Nakota women back to their fort. She begs Farwell to save them, and when he refuses, Mary takes two guns, creeps into the fort and saves the women from certain death. Thus, she sets off a whirlwind of colliding cultures that brings out the worst and best in the cast of unforgettable characters and pushes the love between Farwell and Crow Mary to the breaking point.
From “a tremendously gifted storyteller” (Jim Fergus, author of THE VENGEANCE OF MOTHERS), CROW MARY is a “tender, compelling, and profoundly educational and satisfying read” (Sadeqa Johnson, author of THE YELLOW WIFE) that sweeps across decades, showcasing the beauty of the natural world, while at the same time probing the intimacies of a marriage and one woman’s heart.
Audiobook available, read by Carolina Hoyos
Crow Mary
- Publication Date: March 12, 2024
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction
- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Atria Books
- ISBN-10: 1476748489
- ISBN-13: 9781476748481