Sins of Our Fathers: A Novel

by Shawn Lawrence Otto

Overview

From the screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated House of Sand and Fog, a fierce, elegant, page-turning novel about race, money, and the American Dream

***Finalist for the 2015 Los Angeles Times Book Prize***

Sins of Our Fathers follows small-town banker J.W., who has been caught embezzling funds to support his gambling addiction. J.W. is on the verge of losing everything when his boss offers him a scoundrel's path to redemption: sabotage a competing, Native banker named Johnny Eagle.

A single father, Eagle recently returned to the reservation, leaving a high-powered job in the hope of simultaneously empowering his community and saving his troubled son.

When J.W. moves onto the reservation and begins to work his way close to Eagle, hundreds of years of racial animosities rise to the surface, inexorably driving the characters toward a Shakespearean and shattering conclusion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571311184
Publisher:	Milkweed Editions
Publication date:	11/03/2015
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Shawn Lawrence Otto is the writer and co-producer of the Oscar-nominated film, House of Sand and Fog. He writes for television’s top studios and his work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Science, and Salon, among other publications. He lives in Marine on Saint Croix, MN.

Editorial Reviews

Finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize

“Sins of Our Fathers is the Russian nesting doll of crime novels. An arson inside an embezzlement inside an assault inside a banking scheme, all the way down to the core of the book, which is an unflinching look at America’s original sin: five hundred years of physical and spiritual violence against Native peoples, both on and off the reservation. Crimes that made our country.”—Attica Locke, author of Black Water Rising

“A wonderfully vivid debut.”—Publishers Weekly (starred)

“With precise writing and a storyteller’s eye for detail, it’s hard to believe this is Shawn Otto’s debut novel. Sins of Our Fathers is a fine depiction of how all the best intentions can—and do—go very, very wrong. A magnificent debut.”—Urban Waite, author of The Terror of Living

“Screenwriter-turned-novelist Shawn Otto has pushed his perfectly crafted characters to their limits. The result is a literary tour de force and a psychological thriller that hooked me from the first page and carried me through to its stunning conclusion.”—Joel Surnow, creator of 24

“A master class.”—Star Tribune

“Excellent writing and dynamic characters make this novel a page turner that stands above the rest.”—Robert Alexander, author of The Kitchen Boy

From the Publisher