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On Heaven's Hill

Regular price $28.99
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Finalist for the 2023 Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain Fiction & PoetryAn Anchorage Daily News Favorite Book of 2023Kim Heacox, author of the National Outdoor Book Award-winning novel Jim...
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  • 21 March 2023
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Finalist for the 2023 Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain Fiction & Poetry
An Anchorage Daily News Favorite Book of 2023

Kim Heacox, author of the National Outdoor Book Award-winning novel Jimmy Bluefeather, returns with a new, brilliant novel about family love and the lengths one will go to protect it.

The small town of Strawberry Flats sits on a remote Alaska coast, peacefully left to itself—until controversial plans for a road and a bridge threaten to upend everything.

Former trapper Salt d’Alene never thought he’d find himself in the midst of such a dispute, but he’ll do anything to provide the best care for his son Solomon, recently diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. Eleven-year-old Kes Nash just wants her father—back from war in Afghanistan—to be normal again. And circling the perimeter of the town is a wolf, Silver, and his pack, quietly watching.

Told from three alternating perspectives, On Heaven’s Hill is a vividly powerful story about rediscovering hope and finding new life in the aftermath of trauma. Filled with humor and compassion, it depicts the best of America, a place composed of wildness and kindness.

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Price: $28.99
Pages: 304
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Imprint: West Margin Press
Publication Date: 21 March 2023
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9781513139111
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Family life fiction, Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: Sense of place
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“A sprawling novel brimming with suspense, ideas and unforgettable characters, Kim Heacox’s On Heaven’s Hill paints a captivating group portrait of a middle-school rebel alliance discovering their true selves in America’s most glorious natural landscape. This book will appeal equally to aging idealists reared on Edward Abbey and adventurous kids hooked on Gary Paulsen. Oh, and it’s laugh-out-loud funny too.” —Mark Adams, New York Times bestselling author of Tip of the Iceberg and Turn Right at Machu Picchu

“Kim Heacox poses the age-old question—what price progress?—with new urgency in On Heaven’s Hill, his compelling novel of an Alaskan hamlet whose remote location is no defense against big-money development. All that stands in its way is a pack of wolves and the twelve-year-old girl determined to save them. Reminiscent of John Nichols’ The Milagro Beanfield War, Heacox deftly weaves lyrical tributes to the healing power of nature with a fast-paced plot that builds to a heart-pounding conclusion.” —Gwen Florio, author of the Lola Wicks mysteries

"This is a book that could only have been written by someone who has paid very close and very loving attention to the natural and human communities—the packs and families, and the individuals that make them up. That intimate and tender observation produces a magnificent book, full of reality and hope and wild joy.” —Bill McKibben, author of Falter and founder of 350.org

“Kim Heacox is the bard of Alaska, drawing stories from the power and music of the land itself. His new book, On Heaven’s Hill, is truly a novel to match Alaska’s mountains. The braided plot runs fast. The characters are broken and shining, as if eroded to their cores. The language calls out with rain-carved clarity. And the truth that the novel tells is both eternal and seismic: a girl, a wounded vet, and a hungry wolf all come to know that in our struggle to heal the reeling world, we may find a chance, maybe a last chance, to heal ourselves.” —Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Earth’s Wild Music

“Kim Heacox knows Alaska—the wilderness, the animals, the communities. He has found a way to dramatize the conflicts tearing at us, while reminding us of the power of the land to heal. And he has found a bold way to give wolves a voice in the story—while toying with that familiar Chekhovian dictum: don’t display a grenade launcher in act one unless you intend to blow up something in act three.” —Tom Kizzia, author of Cold Mountain Path and Pilgrim’s Wilderness

“Few writers know Alaska’s wildlands and human landscapes like Kim Heacox. In this remarkable novel, humans and wild things circle each other until they collide in gripping and inspirational ways. Whether you seek stirring insights, entertaining prose, or both, On Heaven’s Hill will capture your days and dreams to the last page. This is Heacox’s finest work.” —Daniel Henry, Pushcart Prize winner and author of Across the Shaman’s River: John Muir, the Tlingit Stronghold, and the Opening of the North

“When an intrepid wolf, a plucky twelve-year-old girl, and a former trapper must face a rapidly changing ecosystem, the more-than-human world offers powerful advice: listen closely, expand your range, and find power in the pack. Kim Heacox writes with fierce love and lucid clarity about Southeast Alaska, a place where the line between human and nature has, thankfully, nearly faded. On Heaven’s Hill is the kind of story the planet needs right now.” —Kimi Eisele, author of The Lightest Object in the Universe

“A dazzling tale of a young girl, a desperate father, and a silver wolf caught in the middle of a battle between an Alaskan band of war veterans and corrupt land developers. Another compelling read from the author of Jimmy Bluefeather and The Only Kayak.—Lynne M. Spreen, author of Dakota Blues and We Did This Once Before

"The novel’s painterly prose evokes Alaska as a place of great beauty and scarcity...a well-plotted tale of frontier utopianism that should appeal to nature lovers.” Kirkus


Praise for Jimmy Bluefeather:

“Part quest, part rebirth, Heacox's debut novel spins a story of Alaska's Tlingit people and the land, an old man dying, and a young man learning to live.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Heacox does a superb job of transcending his characters’ unique geography to create a heartwarming, all-American story.” —Booklist

“A splendid, unique gem of a novel.” —Library Journal (starred review)