Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom

"Lush and evocative&hellip;A highly satisfying, delicately woven story about loss, loneliness, life, and death." <br>&mdash;<b><i>KIRKUS REVIEWS</i></b> <br><br>"Infused with the hypnotic tone of a dream and the rich evocation of place&hellip;utterly affecting." <br>&mdash;<b>LIAM DURCAN</b>, author of <i>The Measure of Darkness</i> <br><br>"<i>Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom</i> is particularly memorable for its close reading of the ways of animals, and for its evocation of place: a would&ndash;be pristine winter kingdom continually threatened by human arrogance, carelessness, and greed. This is an astonishingly mature first novel, suspenseful, haunted&mdash;and haunting&mdash;from start to finish." <br>&mdash;<b>A. G. MOJTABAI</b>, author of <i>Shine on Me</i> <br><br>"Ominous from its opening image, <i>Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom</i> is a haunting beauty. Hammons&apos; prose is tight as tripwire. A quiet madness unfolds and the narrative forces the reader to look and see what the most fragile among us are capable of. Her characters, both human and not, will be with me a long time." <br>&mdash;<b>KELLY SOKOL</b>, author of <i>The Unprotected</i> <br><br>"Chera Hammons writes fiction with the same lyricism that makes her poetry shine. Every sentence sings with grace and music. <i>Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom</i> is a book you don&apos;t read so much as savor." <br>&mdash;<b>RICHARD KRAWIEC</b>, author of <i>Time Sharing</i> <br><br>Anna and her husband John, a master saddlemaker, have created a quiet existence for themselves in rural Vermont. When John disappears in the woods near their home, Anna hides what she finds there in a desperate effort to ensure her own survival. She must learn to live alone in a landscape where poachers trespass, coyotes roam, bears menace livestock, and winter starves the wild animals&mdash;while debilitating illness and long&ndash;buried secrets threaten to upturn her life.