In one sense it’s hard to easily summarise what this novel is about. The main character is a social worker living in Montana in the late 70s and early 80s, and the two main threads of the story are his search for and relationship with a survivalist vigilante who has a young son, and his quest to find his runaway daughter. Those things, however, go along with a whole raft of other characters, almost all of whom have some kind of growth arc through the progress of the book. Although the settings are, for the most part, either gritty and urban or unforgiving wilderness, and a lot of the action is ostensibly depressing, there’s an optimistic heart to this novel that makes it more of a page-turner than it might otherwise be, and the prose is understated but well-crafted. If you’re a fan of moral ambiguity, this one comes recommended.