Crow Mary

Grissom (The Kitchen House) offers an ambitious account of bravery and initiative inspired by the true story of a Crow woman who married a white man in late-1800s Montana. Goes First is happy as a teenager, learning from her mother and grandmother how to pray, build a sweat lodge, and tan hides, and picking up English from her Métis grandfather. When Goes First is 16, the man she’s meant to marry is killed in a buffalo stampede, and she agrees to marry 34-year-old white fur trader and whiskey seller Abe Farwell, who gives her people guns for protection against enemy Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. For their wedding ceremony, she’s renamed Mary, and Abe brings her to Fort Benton, Mont., where she befriends a Métis woman who helps her deal with culture shock. Mary also shows cunning and strength when faced with violence and injustice, particularly with a drunken party of marauders while on a trading trip with Abe in Canada, qualities that drive the narrative toward a thrilling climax. With a flashback-heavy narrative, Grissom effectively conveys how Mary’s Crow childhood stays with her over the course of her new life. This moving story of one woman’s grit, survival, and resilience will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Rebecca Gradinger, Fletcher & Company. (June)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the protagonist's birth name.