Lucky Turtle

"An epic love story . . . No greater reading pleasure to be had anywhere." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"No one writes about love or the American wilderness like Bill Roorbach . . . Thrilling." --Lily King, author of Writers & Lovers and Five Tuesdays in Winter

When sixteen-year-old Cindra Zoeller is sent to a reform camp in Montana after being involved in an armed robbery, she is thrust into a world of mountains and cowboys and prayers and miscreants and people from all walks of life like she's never seen in suburban Massachusetts. At Camp Challenge, she becomes transfixed by Lucky, a camp employee of mysterious origin--an origin of constant speculation--and the chemistry between them is instant, and profound. The pair escape together into the wilderness to create an idyllic life far from the reach of the law, living off their resounding love, Lucky's vast knowledge of the wilderness, and a little help from some friends.

But they can run from the outside world for only so long, and the consequences of their naïve fantasy of a future together--and circumstances shaped by skin color--will keep them apart for decades. Cindra gets trapped in a relationship, safely if stultifyingly suburban, where she is both cosseted and controlled by a man who claims to be her rescuer. But for Cindra, there will never be another Lucky, and she dreams of one day finding him, the only man she's ever fully trusted, her soulmate.

Page-turning, full of vivid characters, delicious suspense, and ultimately joy, Lucky Turtle is a big- hearted, deeply engrossing love story from one of our most entertaining and perceptive writers.

Author: Bill Roorbach
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 04/26/2022
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.70d
ISBN: 9781643750972


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 11/01/2021 pg. 8
Booklist 02/15/2022 pg. 17
Publishers Weekly 02/28/2022
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2022
Library Journal 04/01/2022 pg. 80
Shelf Awareness 04/29/2022

About the Author
Roorbach, Bill: -

Bill Roorbach is the author of five previous books of fiction, including The Girl of the Lake, the Kirkus Prize finalist The Remedy for Love, the bestselling Life Among Giants, and the Flannery O'Connor Award-winning collection Big Bend. His memoir in nature, Temple Stream, won the Maine Literary Award in nonfiction. Roorbach has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He held the William H. P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. His craft book, Writing Life Stories, has been in print for twenty-five years. His writing has appeared in Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Ploughshares, Granta, Ecotone, New York magazine, and other publications. He lives in Maine with his family.