Inua — Bob Cherry

In a narrative as raw and stunning as the Alaskan landscape itself, inua tells of a young Native Alaskan couple's return to their bush village from an attempt at higher education. Surrounded again by relatives and former friends, they encounter both hope and despair. Encouraged by her childhood classmate, Sonny Manatok, Chena Willow rises to political prominence in the Native struggle to reclaim rights to the land. Her success, however, is tainted by unsuspected dark forces from outside corporate politics, as well as from her own latent desires and ambitions. Her husband, Nick, is a talented carver of traditional wooden masks. But Nick carries a dark and agonizing secret, which emerges in bouts of alcohol abuse and invades the features of his masks in horrifying and grotesque displays of the traditional inua's or spirits. The resolution of his alienation from his wife, his people, and his culture becomes both searing and poignant.