Once Were Mountains

At the turn of the twentieth century in a brothel on the shores of Lake Superior two Finnish immigrants brothers Carl and Juhani Jarvinen find great comfort in the generous bosom of one woman. For one man she is the end for the other she is just the beginning . . . So begins a family saga paralyzed and propelled by love. From the red-stained rim of Minnesota's Mesabi Range to the elegant but dysfunctional home of Duluth's most celebrated iron financier Carl Jarvinen would sacrifice everything to hide his past: a curse on his descendants as they ride the decline of the steel industry decades later. Yet for every man who would deny the past another is forbidden to remember. Such is the life of Leonard DeFoe an Ojibwe Indian sent to an American Indian Boarding School in Pipestone at the age of five. From there and beyond young Leonard must learn how to survive in a world that would prefer to see him dead. Until at long last stretched along the harried corners of Minneapolis' Hennepin Avenue these two stories become one weaving their way through an historical imperative that both forces and forgives their coming together. Victoria Richards Victoria Richards was born and raised in Minnesota. She lives in Jackson Wyoming with her husband and their two sons. This is her first novel.