We had to share all of the fantastic praise that has been coming in for David Heska Wanbli Weiden's Winter Counts, including a quote from the one-and-only Louise Erdrich! Check it out below:
“Winter Counts is both a propulsive crime novel and a wonderfully informative book. David Heska Wanbli Weiden has written the first of what I hope is a series of books about life on Rosebud Reservation. Virgil Wounded Horse, his nephew Nathan, and Marie Short Bear are more than characters; they brim with intrigue and authentic life.”
—Louise Erdrich, author of The Night Watchman
Check out all of this amazing praise Winter Counts has received:
“Winter Counts is a marvel. It’s a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth. This book is a brilliant meditation on power and violence, and a testament to just how much a crime novel can achieve. Weiden is a powerful new voice. I couldn’t put it down.”
—Tommy Orange, author of There There
“David Heska Wanbli Weiden's Winter Counts marks the rise of a powerful new Native American voice in fiction, one that possesses an unnameable quality. With brilliant and precise prose, Weiden has created a deeply moving, heartfelt crime novel through Virgil Wounded Horse and his experiences of Native life. An astonishing debut novel.”
—Brandon Hobson, National Book Award Finalist and author of Where the Dead Sit Talking
“One part gritty procedural, one part hard-edged literature, Winter Counts is more than a novel—it’s a testament in napalm you won’t be able to put down because it burns and holds fast.”
—Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries
“I’ve been waiting most of my life for this book without realizing it. Winter Counts is a knowing, authentic, closely observed novel about modern-day Lakotas that rings absolutely true, warts and all. The sense of place is breathtaking and raw. It’s a hell of a debut.”
—C.J. Box, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Long Range
“The full-throttle, can't-put-it-downness of this novel is a fact. Winter Counts is a hell of a gripping debut, perfectly plotted, and David Heska Wanbli Weiden is a major new voice in crime fiction, indigenous fiction, and American literature.”
—Benjamin Percy, author of Suicide Woods and Red Moon
“Winter Counts is a terrific debut—tight and tense, hard-eyed and big-hearted. David Heska Wanbli Weiden’s main character, Virgil Wounded Knee, is as compelling, complex, and sharply observed as the world he inhabits.”
—Lou Berney, Edgar Award-winning author of November Road and The Long and Faraway Gone
“With this unique, cogent debut, David Heska Wanbli Weiden announces himself as a formidable new voice in crime fiction. The images haunt, the action crackles, and Virgil Wounded Horse makes a lasting impression as he knuckles his way through a heroin ring that threatens life as he knows it on his South Dakota reservation. Winter Counts is a heartfelt page-turner with compelling characters, keen cultural insight, and a climax unlike any I’ve read before.”
—Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay
“Winter Counts is a gripping, richly textured thriller and an urgent dispatch from Indian Country. Crimes are solved, violence happens, and Virgil Wounded Horse, a hard-fisted, big-hearted, irresistible Lakota enforcer, guides us through the complicated realities of contemporary Native life on and off the reservation. Weiden writes with impressive authority and insight in this entirely original, enlightening, cliché-destroying novel.”
—James McLaughlin, Edgar Award-winning author of Bearskin
Wow! Congrats, David!
Winter Counts is on sale August 25, 2020. Download an egalley on Edelweiss and NetGalley now.
-Lainey