Moon of the Turning Leaves

Twelve years after an inexplicable blackout led to the collapse of society, a group of Anishinaabe people have established a small community in the bush in Northern Ontario. While they’ve managed to survive there, their natural resources are beginning to dwindle, and the elders are considering sending another scouting party south to see if their ancestral land along Lake Huron is habitable and if anyone else remains there. Previous Lake Huron scouts never returned home, but Evan Whitesky and his daughter Nangohns, along with four others, volunteer to make the potentially dangerous trip. Rice writes about this fraught journey with evocative, deliberate language as the travelers trek through the forest and eventually encounter the ruins of towns. He creates a constant, low-level tension that contrasts with the occasional pulse-pounding, harrowing moments, which will keep readers glued to the page.