Local author Nicole Helget on 'Stillwater'

'Stillwater' by Nicole Helget
'Stillwater' by Nicole Helget
Book cover courtesy of publisher

Local author Nicole Helget is out with her latest novel, "Stillwater," which follows fraternal twins in Minnesota in the years leading up to the Civil War.

From the Publishers Weekly review:

What drives the narrative is the dark side of the pioneer spirit — the urge to abandon home and loved ones in search of opportunity. Helget's colorful cast struggles against an "every man for himself" frontier mentality: from a set of orphaned, separated twins named Clement and Angel; to their biological father, a ne'er-do-well fur-trapper named Beaver Jean; to Angel's nervous, abusive adoptive mother in her fine taffeta skirts; to the nuns and priests and native Americans and escaped slaves who fill out the titular town of Stillwater.

In the Mankato Free Press, Tanner Kent called the novel a "logjam of colorful characters."

"'Stillwater' once again illustrates the author's unflinching treatment of the human condition," Kent wrote. "In moments of barbarity and humility, violence and tenderness, greed and sacrifice, Helget leaves no saint without sin and no sinner without grace."

Helget joins The Daily Circuit to talk about her novel and the inspirations for her work.

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