The Turtle Catcher by Nicole Lea Helget - February 2009

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, February 2009. Hardcover. First Edition / full number line. Fine book in a Fine jacket. Interior pristine. Spine straight and tight, tail lightly bumped. Jacket clean and bright. Not from a library. No remainder mark. Not clipped. 288 pages.

A haunting love story with a heinous crime at its core. In a rural Minnesota town of German immigrants in the tumultuous days of WorldWar I, The Turtle Catcher brings together two misfits from warring clans. Liesel, the one girl in the upstanding family of Richter boys, harbors a secret about her body that thwarts all hope for a normal life. Her closest friend is Lester, the "slow" boy in the raffish Sutter family, a gentle, kind soul who spends his days trapping turtles in the lake. Yearning for human touch in the wake of her parents' deaths, Liesel turns to her only friend-leading her brother, just returned from the war, to an act that will haunt not only both families but the entire town. Helget's novel is a story of loyalty and betrayal that, like her earlier book, proves her uncommon understanding of the natural world and human frailties. Both moving and heartfelt, The Turtle Catcher confirms this young writer's exceptional talent.