"If America was a melting pot, Butte would be its boiling point," observes Morrie Morgan, the itinerant teacher, walking encyclopedia, and inveterate charmer last seen leaving a one-room schoolhouse in Marias Coulee, the stage he stole in The Whistling Season. A decade later Morrie is back in Montana, as the beguiling narrator of Work Song.

Lured like so many others by "the richest hill on earth," Morrie steps off the train in Butte, copper-mining capital of the world, in its jittery heyday of 1919. But while riches elude Morrie, once again a colorful cast of local characters – and their dramas -seem to seek him out: a look-alike-sound-alike pair of retired Welsh miners; a streak-of lightning waif so skinny he is nicknamed Russian Famine; a pair of mining company goons; a comely landlady propitiously named Grace; and an eccentric boss at the public library, the mere whisper of whose nickname inspires an unbookish terror in all who hear it. When Morrie crosses paths with a lively former student, now engaged to a young union leader, he is caught up in the mounting clash between the ironfisted mining company, radical "outside agitators," and the beleaguered miners. And as tensions above and below reach the explosion point, Morrie finds a unique way to give voice to those who truly need one.

So, while Work Song is rich in many of the ingredients that readers have liked so much in the earlier novel, it has its own undertow of circumstance, humor, and drama – and through it all, Morrie in his inimitable way calls the tune of "the music of men's lives."

Review

PRAISE FOR THE SEA RUNNERS

"Brilliant and original . . . A remarkable evocation of the human spirit in contest with inhuman forces."--The Boston Globe

"The Sea Runners . . . goes beyond being 'about' survival and becomes, mile by terrible mile, the experience itself."--The New York Times Book Review

Product Description

In this timeless survival story, four indentured servants escape their Russian Alaska work camp in a stolen canoe, only to face a harrowing journey down the Pacific Northwest coast. Battling unrelenting high seas and fierce weather from New Archangel, Alaska, to Astoria, Oregon, the men struggle to avoid hostile Tlingit Indians, to fend off starvation and exhaustion, and to endure their own doubt and distrust. Based on an actual incident in 1853, The Sea Runners is a spare and awe-inspiring tale of the human quest for freedom.

Product Description

This work introduced a major modern author to the reading public. Doig’s life was formed among the sheepherders and other denizens of small-town saloons and valley ranches as he wandered beside his restless father. New Preface by the Author.

About the Author

IVAN DOIG is the author of ten previous books, including the novels Prairie Nocturne and Dancing at the Rascal Fair, most recently The Whistling Season, and three works of nonfiction, including This House of Sky.  A former ranch hand, newspaperman, and magazine editor, Doig holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

“No cocina, pero tampoco muerde”. Así comienza el anuncio en el que Rose Llewellyn, una viuda de “buenas costumbres y disposición excepcional”, se ofrece en el otoño de 1909 como ama de llaves; la frase capta de inmediato la atención de Oliver Milliron, un viudo con tres hijos y poca maña en las tareas domésticas, que la contrata para poner un poco de orden en su casa de Marias Coulee, Montana. Y así comienza también la inolvidable temporada que Rose y su hermano Morris, un dandi sabelotodo, pasarán en este pueblo de granjeros. Cuando la maestra local se escapa con un predicador, Morris se verá obligado a aceptar su puesto; sus particulares métodos de enseñanza marcarán para siempre a los jóvenes alumnos de la escuela rural. Ni ellos ni la familia Milliron ni el pueblo de Marias Coulee volverán a ser los mismos tras la llegada de Rose y Morris.

El verano de 1939 se presenta como uno más en la vida de Jick McCaskill, un chico de English Creek, Montana. Jick espera con ansia los ritos estivales: el conteo de las ovejas, el rodeo y el baile con que se celebra la fiesta del Cuatro de Julio. Pero cuando su hermano Alec anuncia que ha decidido casarse y renunciar a sus estudios universitarios, la armonía familiar se tambalea. Con poco más de catorce años, Jick acompañará a su padre en una de sus excursiones como guarda forestal y le echará una mano en sus muchos quehaceres; la dureza del trabajo y la vida al aire libre, sus nuevas responsabilidades y la gente que va tratando lo introducen en el mundo de los adultos que hasta entonces le estaba vedado.