Prudence: A Novel
A haunting and unforgettable novel about love, loss, race, and desire in World War II€“era America.
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On a sweltering day in August 1942, Frankie Washburn returns to his family€s rustic Minnesota resort for one last visit before he joins the war as a bombardier, headed for the darkened skies over Europe. Awaiting him at the Pines are those he€s about to leave behind: his hovering mother; the distant father to whom he€s been a disappointment; the Indian caretaker who€s been more of a father to him than his own; and Billy, the childhood friend who over the years has become something much more intimate. But before the homecoming can be celebrated, the search for a German soldier, escaped from the POW camp across the river, explodes in a shocking act of violence, with consequences that will reverberate years into the future for all of them and that will shape how each of them makes sense of their lives.
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With Prudence, Treuer delivers his most ambitious and captivating novel yet. Powerful and wholly original, it€s a story of desire and loss and the search for connection in a riven world; of race and class in a supposedly more innocent era. Most profoundly, it€s about the secrets we choose to keep, the ones we can€t help but tell, and who€"and how€"we€re allowed to love.