The Prospectors

Djanikian (The Office of Mercy) returns with a thought-provoking if uneven family saga set during the Klondike Gold Rush. In 1897, Californians Ethel Berry and her husband Clarence strike gold in the Yukon Territory. Ethel’s unmarried sister Alice hopes for a piece of the fortune, and leaves behind the struggling family farm to join Ethel and Clarence. In the Yukon, she cares for Ethel, still dangerously weak after a miscarriage, and though Clarence appreciates Alice’s help, he resents her lack of deference and her desire for wealth of her own. One of the book’s strengths is Djanikian’s choice not to portray Alice as a virtuous feminist icon. She’s prejudiced against Indigenous people, which fuels her mistrust of Clarence’s Tlingit guide, Jim Lowell, as well as her resentment of Jim’s beautiful half sister, Jane, with whom she suspects Clarence is having an affair. When some of the Berrys’ gold disappears, Alice accuses the Lowells on scant evidence, and Clarence accidentally kills Jim in the resulting manhunt. In 2015, Alice’s elderly grandson, Peter Bailey, attempts to give Jane Lowell’s last living descendants several million dollars of the family fortune by way of restitution, against other family members’ objections. Though the contemporary narrative feels thin, Alice’s morally complex character and vividly evoked experiences are gripping. This offers ample rewards. Agent: Jenni Ferrari-Adler, Union Literary. (Oct.)