Review by Jessi Cole Walters
Callan Wink is a fly-fishing guide in Yellowstone and an incredible author; his stories have been published in The New Yorker, Men's Journal, and the Best American Short Stories Anthology.
His second novel, Beartooth, tells the story of two brothers, Thad and Hazen, living on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park in their family's hand-built house and land, surviving and working to pay off their father's mountainous medical bills by selling lumber.
When a mysterious foreigner enlists the brothers to pull off heists and poaching in the park, like killing black bears for their pelts and collecting hundreds of pounds of elk antlers, the two quickly find themselves in over their heads as the dangers of the wilderness close in on them.
I found Wink's second novel to be masterful--he has a clear connection with the western woods and waters. His story, though an exciting and gripping heist story, contains evocative and accurate descriptions of the natural world through which the brothers propel. Wink also successfully captures the character types living almost off the grid in the beautiful yet treacherous wilderness.
Hunters and anglers will find this book compelling and unputdownable. It's one you'll be thinking about for a while, and it'll have you itching to get back out in the woods or maybe even to find your own cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Pick up a copy at your local bookstore (or if you must, online) on February 11. I'd recommend to read it with a hot cup of coffee at your fly-tying desk, in an old leather chair, or at your own cabin in the woods. And then get excited for spring fishing and turkey hunting.
