Spirit Falls is the story of two children bound by friendship,
tested by wilderness, and shaped by loss.
Spirit Falls is the first novel of the Long War series. Before the spies. Before the secrets. Before the war that never officially started — two children in a Michigan forest had no idea history was coming for them.
It's 1953. Korea is bleeding on the other side of the world. In Spirit Falls, Michigan — a town where veterans don't talk and winters last forever — six-year-old Marie-Jeanne Charbonneau walks into a one-room schoolhouse and meets Ricky Belisle.
Their parents are haunted people: scarred soldiers, refugee women, men who brought the war home in the silence behind their eyes. Left to find their own way, Ricky and Marie-Jeanne claim the forest, the lakes, and the swamps as their kingdom.
But Eden has a short lease. A broken family arrives. Strangers bring temptation. And a sudden storm on Lake Superior forces two children to face something no child should have to name.
Spirit Falls is the first novel in The Long War series— a five-book epic following Richard Belisle and Soviet soldier Danton Larionov from the ruins of World War II to the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991. Written by a former U.S. military intelligence analyst who spent the Cold War watching the Soviet machine from the inside, this is the series le Carré fans have been waiting for — with the emotional depth of Hemingway's Michigan stories and the sweep of Ken Follett.
This is where it begins. With two kids in a forest. With a friendship that will have to survive everything the twentieth century throws at it.
If you've ever loved a place so much it became part of who you are — start here.
...Warm congratulations on the book. I took it with me on one of the late elgs of Hell book tour and though I'd just dip into it. But you caught me, man. Very compelling. And the line-to-line writing is first rate. Great job.
Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The son of an immigrant finds himself at odds with the old and new worlds. Spirit Falls tells the story of Ricky Belisle, a young man grappling with his first generation immigrant parents and his life in the north central United States, in Michigan and Wisconsin. When he finds himself responsible for survival of another during the great storm in Lake Superior, he learns the harsh realities of life quickly. Spirit Falls is a riveting read that shouldn't be missed.
The Midwest Review of Books
I downloaded Spirit Falls on my Kindle, just looking for a good read over the Thanksgiving break. It was free, so if it stank, I could tank it. Instead, I found a beautifully written coming of age story set in the Great Lakes Northwoods country.
Amazon reviewer
