With the rich interiority of Marilynne Robinson, the thoughtful contemplation of Cara Wall’s The Dearly Beloved, and the lyricism and wisdom of Louise Erdrich, High Hawk explores the fragility of the past, and the power of second chances. Using language that is at once immersive and transporting, Frykholm evokes the plains of the west, conveying a sense of place and the land.

HIGH HAWK
by Amy Frykholm
University of Iowa Press, Fall 2024
(via Harvey Klinger)

It is the early 1980s and for twenty years Father Joe Kreitzer has been dutifully serving the Lakota community on the Windy Creek Reservation in South Dakota. And in all this time he has carried memories of Veronica; their parting propelled him into the church. Now she has reached out, wanting to rekindle what they had turned their back on so many years ago. While grappling with this resurgence from his past, Joe’s dear friend Alice Nighthawk comes to him with news of her son Little Bear’s arrest for attempted murder. In his efforts to help exonerate Bear, Joe uncovers long buried evidence of a church cover up of abuse at a Catholic school on the reservation, forcing him to confront the choices he’s made and the secrets he keeps. What unfolds is an intimately layered story of love, and a search for answers.

Amy Frykholm grew up in South Dakota, where she worked at a community center in Sioux Falls for over ten years and first studied Lakota. She is an award-winning writer, scholar, and journalist. As senior editor for The Christian Century magazine, she hosts the podcast, In Search Of. Amy has her PhD from Duke University and is the author of five books of nonfiction including the most recent, Wild Woman: A Footnote, The Desert, and My Quest for An Elusive Saint (Broadleaf Books, 2021).