"Haunted and haunting. . . . With fearlessness and humility, in a narrative that flows more artfully than ever between destruction and rebirth, Erdrich has opened herself to possibilities beyond what we merely see—to the dead alive and busy, to the breath of trees and the souls of wolves—and inspires readers to open their hearts to these mysteries as well."— Washington Post Book World

From the author

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When Beatrix Potter returns to her new hometown of Sawrey after some time away, she finds the village threatened by a mysterious outsider who plans to destroy the pristine shoreline of Lake Windermere by constructing a number of villas.

"Ming survived the famine that killed his parents during China's "Great Leap Forward", and lives a hard but adequate life, working in the fields. When a group of city boys comes to the village as part of a Communist Party re-education program, Ming and his friends aren't sure what to make of the new arrivals...But despite his reservations, Ming befriends a charming city boy called Li. The two couldn't be more different, but slowly they form a bond...

Three years have passed since Major Sir Robert Kurland and Lucy Harrington, the rector's daughter, became husband and wife. Having established a measure of contentment among the gentry of Kurland St. Mary, the couple lately have found an unsettling distance grown between them. But when the small-village peace is disrupted by the arrival of an anonymous letter accusing Lucy of witchcraft, her as yet unfulfilled desire to be a mother becomes the least...

Protecting her beloved students from the devastating world outside of their 1934 Berlin classroom, Thekla Köppen sacrifices some of her personal freedoms to retain her teaching position until activities within Hitler's early regime test her moral courage.

"Not far from London, there is a village. This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England's mysterious past and its confounding present. It belongs to Mad Pete, the grizzled artist. To ancient Peggy, gossiping at her gate. To families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here. But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort who has woken from his slumber...

This is the story of Sara and Richard Everton, a couple embarked on a journey of renewal. They leave a house and job in San Francisco and travel to the small Mexican village of Ibarra to reopen a copper mine, abandoned in 1910 by Richard's grandfather. They also plan to restore the family home, a crumbling reminder of the past. However, they learn that Richard is dying of leukemia.

1912. The peace of the Lake District is interrupted by the noisy test flights of a new flying machine: the hydroplane-- and Beatrix's friend Grace is receiving anonymous letters that threaten her good name and her plans to marry.

When a baby arrives on her doorstep during Sawrey's annual summer fãete, Beatrix Potter sets out to discover the truth about the abandoned baby, following her only clue, a scarab ring, to Hawthorn House, a legendary manor reputed to be haunted.