MPR: Stonich's new novel revisits her North Country Minnesota roots

"It's about northern Minnesota. It's about a small town and the people who live in it. And they go through stuff and they experience things, and it's the relationships, one to the other."

Laurentian Divide (Sarah Stonich)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.

Published in: Minnesota Public Radio
By: Euan Kerr