West of Here — Jonathan Evison

Set in the fictional town of Port Bonita, on Washington State's rugged Pacific coast, West of Here is propelled by a story that both re-creates and celebrates the American experience. With one segment of the narrative focused on the town's founders circa 1890 and another showing the lives of their descendants in 2006, the novel develops as a kind of conversation between two epochs -- one rushing blindly toward the future and the other struggling to undo the damage of the past. It is storytelling on the grandest scale.