Sarah Stonich may live near downtown Minneapolis, but she sees herself as a small-town northern Minnesota girl. Her new novel, "Laurentian Divide," delves into the joy and grief of people living in a community facing everyday issues on the edge of the wilderness.

Hatchet Inlet is the kind of town where people make do. There's the story of the kid taken to a party to celebrate the return of a young man who slipped over the border to Canada to avoid the draft and a likely trip to Vietnam. Everyone is in high spirits until young Pete loses his first tooth — which then drops in the dirt. Despite a multi-person bended-knee search by flashlight, it is never found.

Article + interview.