A BookPage Best Book of the Year It is 1938 when Eveline, a young bride, follows her husband, Emil, into the Minnesota wilderness. Though their cabin is rundown, they have a river full of fish, a garden out back, and a baby boy named Hux. But when Emil leaves to take care of his sick father, a dangerous stranger arrives, fracturing their small family forever and leaving Hux to grow up wondering if the wrongs of the past can ever be mended. Set before a backdrop of vanishing forest, Rebecca Rasmussen has written a luminous and emotionally charged novel about how one defining moment can echo through generations.