Author Description

Nearing Hungry Horse By: Carol Woster Bodil Strand returns home to Hungry Horse, Montana. The land has a rich history of miners and outlaws, artists and religious communities, proud people living in a beautiful and dangerous land. But Bodil finds the town is slowly being crushed by the vicious practices of the local social worker, Walter Schultz, who breaks apart families and creates a ruthless cycle of poverty and dependence. As a reporter for the local paper, Bodil also acts as confessor for the townspeople’s secrets, hopes, and fears. There’s Tarra and Morgan, whose marriage is crumbling under financial strain; Rudy, a struggling veteran; Jane, depressed and in love with Rudy; Pastor Kiefer, too proud to provide for his disillusioned flock; and Owen Wells and his wife, whose grandchildren were taken away by the state on false abuse charges. Bodil tries to write the truth in her articles, to capture the spirit of her beaten and broken neighbors as they try to live lives of freedom and hope. Epic in scope and intimate in scale, Nearing Hungry Horse reflects on the peril of supposed progress in a wild land.