Content Warning: This guide contains discussions of the source text’s depictions of sexual assault, domestic violence, suicide, and substance abuse disorders.

“The child lost in the raid was still nameless, still a half-spirit, yet her mother mourned her for a solid year’s time and nearly died of the sorrow.”

This passage, which describes the girl who would come to be known as Matilda Roy, speaks to the novel’s interest in cultural preservation. Although her mother has no idea what happened to her, her mother never gives up. This becomes a metaphor for the way that individuals hold onto their cultural traditions in the face of assimilation and adversity.

“The herd flows in steps and spurting gallops deeper into the west. When they walk she walks, following, dried berries in a sack made of her dress. When they run, she runs with them. Naked, graceful, the blue beads around her neck.”

This passage, which describes the herd of antelope that come for Blue Prairie Woman in her final hours, grounds the novel within a tradition of Indigenous folklore. The antelope woman is a figure who appears in multiple different oral histories, and in engaging with her, the author places her work in dialogue with this traditional story.

“Augustus had grown up in the shadow of his father’s ever more complex grief, and although he had few adults to compare him with, he did think his father was lost.”

There are many examples in this novel of enduring grief, and Scranton Roy’s grief is important because, although white, he deeply regrets the role that he played in the death of an Indigenous woman. His grief consumes him, and he is not able to die in peace until he has righted his wrong.