Sins of Our Fathers: A Novel

by Shawn Lawrence Otto

Overview

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist: A “wonderfully vivid” crime novel about race, money, and the American Dream (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
 
A banker in small-town Minnesota, J.W. has been caught embezzling funds to support his gambling addiction. He’s 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, in this elegant, page-turning novel by the screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated House of Sand and Fog.
 
“A rousing and satisfying climax. Otto’s wonderfully vivid debut narrative is reminiscent of well-known crime novelist William Kent Krueger.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Captivating from the first page.”—The Missourian

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571319128
Publisher:	Milkweed Editions
Publication date:	09/23/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	370
File size:	4 MB

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.

Shawn Lawrence Otto is the writer and co-producer of the Oscar-nominated film House of Sand and Fog. He also writes for top studios like DreamWorks and Lions Gate. His nonfiction book, Fool Me Twice, garnered praise from the likes of Bill McKibben, Bill Nye, and Steven Pinker, and his writing has also appeared in Rolling Stone, Science, and Salon, among other publications. He lives in Minneapolis, MN.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2014
In a small town in Minnesota, bank president JW excels at teaching interested business administrators about risk management accounts funded by Indian reservation casinos. Following the accidental death of his son, JW withdraws from his wife and daughter, spending all of his free time at casinos. Consequently, he and his wife separate, and he and his daughter grow apart. In addition, JW's boss, Mr. Jorgensen, catches him embezzling funds from the bank to pay his gambling debts. Offering an alternative to pressing charges, Mr. Jorgensen asks JW to derail a competitor's plans to start a new bank on the reservation. As JW plots his next move, he must choose between self-preservation and justice. VERDICT The writer and coproducer of the Oscar-nominated film House of Sand and Fog delivers an excellent debut literary thriller. Fans of Larry Watson and Louise Erdrich will enjoy the intricate plot, well-developed characters, and social commentary about Native American culture. Moreover, readers who are interested in mysteries with a Minnesota setting will want to try this edgy page-turner. [See "Famously Firsts," Fall/Winter 2014/15 First Novels, LJ 10/1/14.]—Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE

Library Journal

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