About the author... Karen Dionne

She lives in Detroit, she’s 64 and has written previous novels under the name K.L. Dionne. In the 1970s, she and her husband moved with their baby daughter to the wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where this novel is set. There they built their own cabin and lived off the land for three years.

On her inspiration for this novel... “I’ve always been fascinated by people who overcome a less-than-perfect upbringing. How someone can start out lacking the tools for life and then turn it round.” On how she started writing the book... “I actually woke up in the middle of the night with the first sentences fully formed in my head. I wasn’t dreaming about the character, she was just there, talking to me and telling me who she was.”

On her experience living in the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula... “It instilled in us a love of wild places and an ease with nature that shapes us to this day. We’ll never forget our halcyon homesteading days.”