Winter Song: A Novel

For fans of Elizabeth Strout and Kent Haruf: a novel that follows the intertwined lives of a small-town Midwestern police chief and a young man recently released from prison, each in search of justice

It's 1986, deep winter, in the hinterland of Minnesota: remote Middle America, with demolition derbies and downtown diners, a place so frozen and secluded the world beyond its borders barely registers.

Here, Gordon Trent, a police chief facing mandatory retirement, squares off with Byron Lugo, just released from Stillwater prison for vehicular homicide. Byron has never admitted guilt and still proclaims his innocence to anyone who will listen: the police chief, townspeople suspicious of the felon now in their midst, the motley group of friends who will stand by him no matter what did or didn't happen that fateful night.

Byron's headlong quest to clear his name and resume the life he lost when he was convicted will force the chief into a painful reassessment of his own judgment, loyalty, and legacy as a police officer.

Winter Song is a moving and pitch-perfect examination of love, community, identity, and the redress of past wrongs in working-class America—and marks the introduction of a brilliant new literary voice.

“Winter Song is a revelation, a novel that searches in the most honest ways for redemption and does it with such confidence and control. Set in rural Minnesota, where a police chief and a released felon struggle with the implications of the past and the uncertainty of the future, this is a rare novel that is both unflinching and tender, a wondrous debut by a major talent.” - Kevin Wilson, author of Run for the Hills and Nothing to See Here

“This is a book I needed right now, because it doesn’t deny the ugliness of the world, but it reminded me of the good humans are capable of. Morales writes with a gritty earnestness that puts her in the good company of Elizabeth Strout and Kent Haruf. Winter Song is full of wisdom and grace and humor and it raises essential questions about justice and forgiveness and love – the history we’ve been assigned, the future we choose.” - Benjamin Percy, author of The Sky Vault and Red Moon