No, said Ben. Not ever again. You walk away from here and forget about this. We did what needed to be done. That’s it. Papa would’ve done the same and Mother would’ve said to keep quiet. So not another word from any of you. Not to Anna especially.
From the Minnesota Bookseller's Association:
A stand-out fiction debut by a prize-winning young writer.
The Summer of Ordinary Ways, Nicole Helget’s fierce and lyrical memoir of growing up on a Minnesota dairy farm, was a favorite of critics and booksellers and received widespread acclaim. People magazine hailed the young author’s ability to “take the messiest of lives and fashion something beautiful.”
Here in her first novel, Helget turns her extraordinary sensibility to a haunting love story with a heinous crime at its core. In a rural Minnesota town of German immigrants in the tumultuous days of World War I, The Turtle Catcher brings together two misfits from warring clans. Liesel, the one girl in the upstanding family of Richter boys, harbors a secret about her body that thwarts all hope for a normal life.
Her closest friend is Lester, the “slow” boy in the raffish Sutter family, a gentle, kind soul who spends his days trapping turtles in the lake. Yearning for human touch in the wake of her parents’ deaths, Liesel turns to her only friend-leading her brother, just returned from the war, to an act that will haunt not only both families but the entire town.
Helget’s novel is a story of loyalty and betrayal that, like her earlier book, proves her uncommon understanding of the natural world and human frailties. Both moving and heartfelt, The Turtle Catcher confirms this young writer’s exceptional talent.
The Turtle Catcher is the new novel by Nicole Helget, winner of the 2005 Tamarack Award for short fiction, the 2004 Speakeasy Prize and author of the acclaimed memoir The Summer of Ordinary Ways.
Tamarack judge Scott Simon of National Public Radio said of The Turtle Catcher: "A great, rattling, breathless mystery composed in rolling musical cadences. It opens with a sin, unwraps family secrets, and closes with a startling, searing cut, a rattle of skulls, and one more secret tossed in the weeds to escape with a flight of cicadas."
Published by Houghton Mifflin, The Turtle Catcher will be available Feb. 20, 2009.
Pre-order your copy here.