World of the Book

The world of a book is collaborative. The author gives the raw materials, and the reader constructs with them something new. It's part of what makes books enduring. We can read the same book a decade or a year later and envision the world inside differently because we are different.

This book is set in the Aleutians and covers catastrophic periods in Aleutian history, from pre-contact times to the mid-1980s. Much of it takes place in the Elbow Room, legendary Alaskan bar, where a mystery begins with bathroom graffiti.

In this book world ...

Find Your Voice

Cindy's sister Jana Osturgut created this slide show for a digital media class while getting her master's in literary criticism. Although not specifically about the Aleut people, many of the images Jana chose document Aleut history. She created the piece to help us to connect to the destruction in our pasts, whether a torn culture or a worn past, and to sense the hope that lies in our futures. The strong, she says, remember, listen, and speak. They tell their stories so that history will be more complete, more powerful, more redemptive.

Aleut history slideshow