The stories behind twelve different bullet wounds

'The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley' by Hannah Tinti
'The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley' by Hannah Tinti
Courtesy of publisher

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Jennifer Norton, a bookseller at The Homer Bookstore in Homer, Alaska.

Samuel Hawley has a violent past, and his body shows it: He has twelve bullet wound scars.

And over the course of Hannah Tinti's novel, Samuel tells his daughter Loo the story behind each of them.

In "The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley," Tinti weaves together a father's secrets with a daughter's coming-of-age story.

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

Jennifer Norton loved it. She became a fan of Tinti's a few years ago, when Tinti came through Homer with her previous novel, "The Good Thief."

Alaska is just one of the places in "Twelve Lives" where Samuel earns a bullet wound. The sense of place that Tinti instills in her novel is one of the reasons Norton loved it.

The settings of the Samuel's scar stories range from an inn in the desert to Alaska to the northeastern coast of the U.S.

Twelve Lives Twelve Lives