Originally published: New York : Random House, ©2009

In 1954, in the cookhouse of a logging and sawmill settlement in northern New Hampshire, an anxious twelve-year-old boy mistakes the local constable's girlfriend for a bear. Both the twelve-year-old and his father become fugitives, forced to run from Coos County-to Boston, to southern Vermont, to Toronto-pursued by the implacable constable. Their lone protector is a fiercely libertarian logger, once a river driver, who befriends them. A tale that spans five decades

Coos County, New Hampshire, 1954 -- Under the logs -- Do-si-do -- A world of accidents -- Eight-inch cast iron skillet -- Boston, 1967 -- Nom de plume -- In media res -- Windham County, Vermont, 1983 -- Benevento and Avellino -- Dead dogs, remembering Mao's -- Fragile, unpredictable, nature of things -- Lady sky -- Honey -- Toronto, 2000 --

The blue mustang --

Kisses of wolves -- Coos County, New Hampshire, 2001 -- Ketchum's left hand -- Moose dancing -- Pointe au Baril Station, Ontario, 2005 -- Lost nation -- Ketchum excepted