I didn’t enjoy this as much as I expected to. Usually I love books set in the remoter parts of the US – in this case north-eastern Vermont – but I found this novel, which is really a series of linked vignettes rather than a sustained narrative, although interesting from an historical point of view, with its cast of white settlers, Native Americans, French-Canadians and escaped slaves from both the past and the present, somehow fell flat in its characterisation, and I failed to engage with any of the protagonists. The novel centres around the Kinneson family, long-time residents, and in particular on Jim Kinneson, whose coming-of-age we chart here. There’s much to enjoy about small town life here, (although rather more about baseball and hunting than I would have liked) and overall it’s an evocative and atmospheric portrait of a community and family, but somehow it just didn’t work for me.