A Viking ship with an Icelandic heiress aboard gets lost in a storm before being guided to the city of Cahokia in Welch’s historical novel.

On the shore of “the inland sea that the French would later name Lake Superior,” Haakon Halverson ruefully watches an escaping snekkja, a smaller version of his Viking dragon ship. The craft, captained by Bjarne Ohlhauser, contains Jorunn Solberg, the Icelandic heiress whom Halverson had wanted to marry. Jorunn was recently among the archers fending off Halverson’s pursuing ship, and it’s clear that she isn’t being kidnapped—she’s leaving of her own volition so that she won’t have to wed Halverson. The smaller ship then gets roiled in a storm, after which Indigenous Mississippian emissaries invite the snekkja crew, which also includes Bjarne’s nephew Einar, to their capital city of Cahokia on a “big river” that “flows from [their] city south to a salt sea.” As the snekkja, with Mississippian Nikan aboard as navigator, travels to Cahokia, Prince Chelan, the brother of the aging “Great Sun” ruler, is summoned to the city by the brutal crown prince, who appears to relish killing “tribute women.” When the snekkja arrives in Cahokia, Nikan discovers that his sweetheart, Tayen, is in the city as a tribute woman. The crown prince surprisingly gives Tayen and Nikan permission to marry and show Einar and Jorunn the city. Then a city festival escalates into violence and rioting, causing the internally warring Viking crew to accelerate their plans to leave.

Over the course of this novel, Welch presents readers with an engaging and fast-moving tale that imagines Vikings venturing deeper into the heart of North America to experience the environment and engage with Mississippians. He wonderfully brings to life the famed population center of this civilization, based along the Mississippi River in what’s now Illinois; the book describes how once, atop the pyramid mounds that remain today, there were leaders’ residences, temples, and public ritual spaces. Welch also imbues his narrative with an array of intriguing characters, although it’s somewhat of a letdown when some of them leave the story rather quickly after generating interest. The relationship between Jorunn and Einar, whom Chelan notes are “teenagers…maybe a little older…it was hard for him to tell,” is demure, with Einar rather elliptically noting at one point, “It occurred to him then that she might let him kiss her. She did.” Welch’s narrative might have benefited from some common clarifying elements in historical novels, such as a map to show the Vikings’ routes, sketches of ship and city layouts, or some additional background detail about the cultures featured. Still, in relatively few pages, Welch conveys quite well the complexities and tensions of the Viking groups and the city and surrounding Mississippian communities, effectively setting the stage for the story’s final showdowns. Best of all, two particularly compelling characters live to see another day, with both prime candidates to lead further adventures.

A rollicking depiction of a speculative meeting of cultures.

In alternating monologues, four siblings tell their story of love, loss, redemption and reconciliation.

In 1983, the Welch children—19-year-old Amanda, 16-year-old Liz, 14-year-old Dan and eight-year-old Diana—were living happy, sheltered lives in a New York City suburb. But this idyllic existence was soon shattered by the death in a car accident of their businessman father, leaving them not only grief-stricken but saddled with debt. Their mother, an actress in soap operas, tried to hold things together but was soon diagnosed with cancer and died three years later after a long, agonizing battle with the disease. Left on their own, the Welch children took very different paths of self-discovery and struggled to maintain the often frayed bonds among them. Amanda escaped to a bohemian life as an NYU student; Liz traveled the world; Dan became lost, first as a stoned-out slacker and then as a mean drunk. Diana was left in the custody of a family whose mother subjected her to endless psychological abuse, while the other siblings tried to convince themselves she was fine. “To be honest, I never thought much about Diana,” writes Dan. “I just assumed she was happy and well. I don’t think I could have handled imagining it any other way.” Diana felt abandoned and, as children do, blamed herself for her feelings. The four eventually reunited, but it was through events they responded to rather than created. Each sibling speaks in his or her own words, as they describe their thoughts and actions as the events unfolded. It’s a love-filled but often fraught dialogue, and the reader is a privileged silent witness to their testimony.

A brutally honest book that captures the journey of four people too young to face the challenges they nevertheless had to face.