This imaginative and intriguing novel of the Dust Bowl in rural Nebraska contains a wealth of historic information, especially about the first peoples who once called it their home and of the horrors endured by the homesteaders who first caused, then suffered from those historic environmental consequences. Contrasting fact with fictional conceptions results in a story that both captivates and chills the reader. A clever oscillation between speakers (including a pregnant cat and a strangely sentient scarecrow) keeps the narrative fresh and at the same time fills in details in a satisfying way that helps explain much of the fantastic nature of the plot. A series of murders of women of little influence casts an eerie pall over all the characters and presents a backdrop for the sinister tone of the story.

Set in Uz, a railroad-company-promoted community of immigrants, mostly Polish, established when commerce and national growth were both rampant and expanding in toxic ways has fallen on hard times, and now that the skies are filled with the soil that provides their life’s sustenance the citizens turn to occult sources to help cope with the tragedy. Antonina Rossi, who was abused as a teen and forced to surrender her newborn son has become a “Prairie Witch” one of that sorority of women who have a peculiar talent; one that finds traction with people who have done regrettable things. They can absorb memories and expunge them from their “depositors”, to be recalled upon demand with the production of a slip of paper with a number on it, like a pawn ticket for dreams and nightmares. Calling themselves “vaults” they act as bankers for unpleasant thoughts, leaving their customers free to go about their lives free of guilt. Include a farmer whose crops grow suspiciously lushly, his teenage niece who is struggling with growing up and love, a WPA photographer chronicling the situation, a sentient scarecrow and even a pregnant and feral cat, and the scene is set.

With elements of magic, the power of nature and human frailties this powerful tale drives relentlessly to an unexpected denouement, telegraphed in the narrative throughout but a surprise all the same. An altogether unusual if not unique reading experience is to be had propelled by a skillful author with a fertile imagination.