Lost Nation

by Jeffrey Lent

Seeking to make a fresh start and establish himself as a trader, Blood heads for Indian Stream, a wild, ungoverned territory in northern New Hampshire, carrying a load of rum and accompanied by Sally, a young girl won from the madam of a brothel, but their arrival triggers an escalating series of clashes and violence that turns both their lives upside down. 75,000 first printing.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Westerns, Novels, Literary Fiction, American

370 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Jeffrey Lent was born in Vermont and grew up there and in western New York State, on dairy farms powered mainly by draft horses. He studied Literature and Psychology at Franconia College in New Hampshire and SUNY Purchase. He lived for many years in North Carolina, an enriching and formative experience. Lent currently resides with his wife and two daughters in central Vermont.

His novel In the Fall was a national bestseller reprinted four times in its first month of publication, was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book for 2000, and earned Jeffrey placement in both Barnes & Noble’s and Borders’ new writer programs; his follow-up, Lost Nation, was a summer reading pick of The Washington Post and USA Today. Both novels were BookSense picks, Book of the Month main selections, and have been widely translated. His most recent novel is Before We Sleep.

Reviews

[David Putnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a sleeper in every respect. And yet a masterful work. Nothing short of stunning. I read it through twice, the first time just to enjoy it, the second time to marvel at the writing craft, the structure, the great depth of character. Reading through twice is really saying something when put up against the height and breath of my, to-be-read books (an entire room bulging at the seams—hyperbole). This one is definitely going in my all-time top five.
I can easily see why this book wouldn’t be for everyone. The story takes a huge backseat to the characters and more importantly their relationships brought out in delicate and at times brutal detail. The story is mostly, “told,” instead of shown in scene. Which makes for some dense reading. And yet the “fictive dream,” is so prevalent here that I found myself visualizing the scenes and the people long after I put the book down. A huge writing feat to be sure.
There are only eight (long) chapters in 370 pages filled with dense narrative.
Two other aspects struck me. I’m big on voice. Voice is the “everything,” in writing, the Big Kahuna (some who follow my reviews are, I’m sure, tired of hearing this). What is truly amazing in the voice is how the author skillfully blends complicated sentence structures with a vocabulary that doesn’t at all match the character, while using colloquialisms of the time as spice. And it works. Kept me entranced the entire time. The voice, structure and writing is truly unique.
Also, the setting carries equal weight to a main character, it’s beauty sublime and hidden behind a harsh majesty. Even so, the story and setting are nothing more than vehicles to display the characters and reveal their all-important relationships. I have this first book, The Fall now on deck, can’t wait to dive in.
If you want a killer read, give The Lost Nation a go. Loooved it.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.

[Ron Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeffrey Lent's first novel, In the Fall, earned him comparisons to Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner. With Lost Nation, we'll have to go back a little further, say, to Euripides. This remarkable tragedy sets the bar pretentiously high, but then somehow surpasses it.

The story is loosely based on a rebellious moment of American history, the short-lived efforts of a group in upstate New Hampshire to secede from the Union two decades before the Southern Confederacy made the same disastrous effort.

The novel opens with a trader named Blood leading an oxcart to Indian Stream. His enormous dog glides alongside like a familiar. Leashed to the back of the cart is a 16-year-old girl he won in a card game. Both of them know their place in this business: Sally considers Blood a better prospect than her mother's whorehouse; Blood regards Sally as another staple to offer customers, along with rum and lead.

I feared I was about to endure a backwoods version of Pretty Woman, but, of all the horrors in this story, the obscenity of that clich� isn't one of them. Lent proves himself capable of making improbable relationships captivatingly real. When Sally claims that she's "tougher'n dried cod," she's not just boasting. Early in their journey, she hypnotizes a pack of wolves with "the high drawn pitched cry of her soul." And then blasts one to smithereens.

But she knows better than to mess with Blood, an enigmatically cultured brute who makes his instructions straightforward and enforces them with ferocious abuse. He's a tortured soul, "a man self-shorn of choice," who senses something redemptive about Sally but refuses to allow himself the benefit of her friendship. He trusts no one, above all "the farce of happiness."

The rough settlement of Indian Stream provides little welcome, but men congregate quickly at his shop to sample rum and Sally. Lent spares us none of the mechanics of this enterprise, but what's captivating is the way Blood and Sally gradually shift into a partnership complicated by deep affection.

The girl's early exposure to men gives her an appreciation for Blood's peculiar scruples and enough sense to fear his discipline. They're both wounded, but Sally retains a degree of hope for the future that Blood has burnt to ash in the furnace of his guilt.

Together they encounter a community charged with the static electricity of savagery. The settlers, caught in a no man's land of conflicting claims by Canada and New Hampshire, live in a kind of insomniac's despair, constantly alert for the sounds of soldiers, or Indians, or trappers gone mad with hunger.

Soon after Blood sets up shop, a string of murders ignites the dry timber of these people's fear. Lent renders the terror of this place with unrelenting energy. Three particularly gruesome murders crash into these woods with such ferocity that I momentarily confused Sally's screams for my own.

In "a country teeming with gathering madness," the settlers turn to Blood's leadership even as they begin to suspect him, the brooding newcomer who's brought them comforts they're ashamed of. Exhausted from years of running from the law and his own dreadful fantasies, Blood is willing to believe that "this is just an incident. Things'll settle down."

But in this dank setting, the reticence that has served him well for so long ferments into a poison of suspicion. Soon he finds himself having to defend his treatment of Sally, even as he begins to consider it untenable himself.

The men in this "enshrouded, bereft land" have good reason to avoid legal scrutiny — Blood most of all — but when these murders attract the attention of governments north and south, he's drawn into a conflict that tests his conviction that "men are the agents of their own fate." Consumed with the "monstrosity of himself," Blood holds such a death grip on guilt that his soul has atrophied in a cramped embrace. Haunted by an abominable crime against his family, he's a tragic character on the order of Lear. Lent renders his story in a spectacular fury of language that cracks and flashes with desperate insight into the nature of remorse and redemption.

There are battles captured here with such raw clarity that you expect to find gunpowder stains on your hands when you put the book down. But the more stunning conflicts in this new masterpiece take place in a heart divided against itself.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gritty read - not for the faint of heart! The stilted writing and spelling took some getting used to, but the descriptions were vivid and it felt like a movie in my head. Even with the atrocities that happened and the density of the book, I really enjoyed it up until the very end!

[Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was quite a surprise - and proof that sometimes the right book comes along at the wrong time. I had tried to read it once, and actually marked it as "not gonna happen." I picked it up again and absolutely loved it!

The book is surprising - the two main characters, Blood- a 40+ year old man, running from his past, gritty, raw and flawed has purchased Sally, a 16 year old prostitute who actually is able to give him a run for his money. They settle in the wild west of the East - in a disputed area of New Hampshire, lawless and rough around the edges. As can be expected, two newcomers who set up a trading post/bar with a prostitute in the next room are not welcomed with open arms by the villagers.

This is not Little House on the Prairie, there are no kind and caring characters, but more like Survival of the Fittest. As the plot unravels we learn what exactly Blood is running from and in doing so, his character is explained - not necessarily becoming likable, but indeed a bit more human.

Sally's character, is also immensely complex as she accepts the fate she was born into, namely whoring, and makes the best of her life. She is illiterate and ignorant of the world. When she told Blood she had never tasted butter, I wanted to cry for her. When she told him that being dragged behind a cart, with feet so swollen that they didn't fit into her boots, with a shift so worn it was of little warmth - when she said that was so much nicer than whoring for her mother - I did cry.

But - and this drove me crazy - my issue was so full of typos, grammatical errors and mistakes, that I took another look to see if it was an ARC - but it wasn't. Perhaps it is now cool to invent grammar, much in the way Cormac McCarthy does - but to me it just distracts because I have to go back and make sure I understood the context. In a book as lyrically written as this one, I found this extremely distracting.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the first two novels I had read by Jeffrey Lent and was looking forward to this one, too. It certainly did not disappoint! It's one of those books that I almost hated to have end. As soon as I finished it, I downloaded the rest of Lent's works to my kindle. He has become one of my favorite authors.

'Lost Nation' is set in a territory between New Hampshire and Canada in the early 19th century--a territory claimed by both nations. The novel begins with a mysterious man named Blood guiding an ox-driven cart full of merchandise (most notably rum and lead). He's looking for a place to settle, a likely place where he can set up a tavern and live a quiet life. His other piece of merchandise is Sally, a fifteen-year old prostitute that he bought after winning at cards. Even though Sally knows what her job at the tavern will be, she is optimistic, and both she and Blood believe that her life will be better than anything she has known before. Blood chooses a northern community that has been settled by both French Canadians and Americans. His business ventures do well, and he becomes accepted by his neighbors as an honest and thoughtful, if somewhat enigmatic, overly-cautious man. But these are troubling times, and as much as Blood wants to stay removed from political conflicts, he feels obliged to tell the truth and to help his neighbors--and these good intentions eventually get him into trouble. Of course, the reader (and everyone in the story) suspect that Blood has secrets in his past, secrets that he is running from, and when we learn of them, they are heartbreaking--as is Blood's inability to shrug off his guilt.

As usual, Lent's writing is beautiful, his plot stunning, and his characters unique and memorable. Blood seems like a hard man initially, but even as he exploits Sally, he develops a relationship with her that shows his deep sense of responsibility; their friendship, tinged with mistrust, is one of the best aspects of the novel. I loved the realistic portrayal of the hard life these New England settlers lived, and I learned a lot about the history of the period, especially the conflicts between the Americans and the Canadians, British, and Native Americans. The conclusion at first seems surprising, then feels both inevitable and right. In short, I loved this book!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

May 6th - I'm 1/3rd through chapter two. I just picked the book up again last night because I didn't want to get out of bed to get the book I was reading (Anil's Ghost, which I had put down to finish Pride and Prejudice). I had read through chapter one - trudged through it, more like it - and started chapter two several weeks ago. It felt too heavy to read at the time and I knew, because of the descriptive nature of the first 60 or so pages, I would not have trouble remembering characters and the story line.

I'm so glad I picked it back up. I'm on page 73 and riveted. The prose is still dense, but I no longer feel like I'm trudging through. Looking back, that feeling was intentional of the writer, I'm sure of it. Pure genius.

So, it took me a solid week to get through this book - although I didn't have a normal amount of reading time over the weekend; but I still felt this book was with me for a long time.

I'm not saying that to be negative, it was just a dense book. The characters are well developed and the story line was fine - not great, I'd say - but fine. I did feel invested in what happened to all of the characters and was a bit surprised at the simplicity of the ending, when the book was previously more complex.

That said, his writing style was fantastic. Different than any I've read before. He had an uncanny ability to speed up and slow down the pace of the book without it becoming overly hurried or down right slow. The tempo matched the part of the story the reader happened to be in.

At times the prose was too long and the need to get back to dialogue was pressing....but once back, the dialogue was smooth and enjoyable.

I enjoyed this book. But it was tiresome - like running a marathon - so, not overwhelming and worthless, but very much worth it, but I felt fatigue at the end of it all.

So, I picked up a brain candy book that is as disappointing as it is easy, and ironically delightful. Just what I need after a hefty, loquacious book!

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years ago, I read Jeffrey Lent's In the Fall, and I was mesmerized with the author's talent for prose paired with a gripping historical narrative. I knew I would have to read another by this gifted writer. Lost Nation did not disappoint.

The novel takes place in Vermont, before statehood. Men ventured out into the wilderness of this New England area for solitude, and to establish communities as they would have them - far from the seats of competing nations that would control them. Those nations, The United States and Britain, weren't content to leave them alone. One such man, Blood, came to this area escaping his past. He brought him a young woman he won in a card game, and he established a tavern in the middle of the wilderness where he could set up trade. This was the lost nation that these settlers sought, but they soon found that paradise was a pipe dream.

In Lost Nation, Lent examines man's need for isolation and community at the same time. His characters struggle with self-worth, self-reliance and human dignity. Lastly, his exploration of understanding and forgiveness in the characters of Blood and Sally, amidst the cruel backdrop of wilderness survival, is memorable, and has a uniquely American flavor.

Jeffrey Lent is a master not only at storytelling, but in presenting the past in such a way that readers are easily transported into that world. His prose is amazing, and the novel was fluid and gripping. I recently read a Booker Prize Winner that I couldn't give the full five stars to because it of it's disconnectedness. Lost Nation is an example of a novel that fully deserves all five stars.

[Pat Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeffrey Lent's historical novel Lost Nation tells the story of Island Stream, a small settlement in northern New Hampshire in 1836 that declares itself a sovereign nation. The book centers around Blood, a middle-aged tavern owner with a troubled past, and Sally, his teenaged companion, who hopes for a better future than prostitution. This unlikely pair establish a tentative closeness that is challenged by troubling murders in the village, the suspicions of some of the townspeople, and the arrival of two young strangers. Lent is a skillful writer and storyteller, and he does not hold back in his description of the harshness of their lives and the brutality of the events that occur. While much of the novel is bleak, there is beauty in the wilderness, and gentleness as the friendship grows between Blood and Sally. Despite the tragedies that occur, I found myself smiling in parts of the book.
My main criticism of the novel is the ending. Some readers will find it satisfying; I did not. I do not want to influence others so I won't elaborate. Despite this, I highly recommend this novel, and I look forward to reading more by Jeffrey Lent.

[Marvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in 1838-39 on the frontier between New England & Canada, this novel's two main characters--a man in his late 40s (I think) who's running from his past, & the 15-year-old girl he purchases from a bordello--are immensely interesting. Both have to learn to trust, & both are amazingly perceptive in their relations with others (a source of their lack of trust). It's a real page-turner, a sometimes violent "Western" (though set on the Eastern frontier), at the same time as it's an insightful character study.

[Susie Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lent's writing draws me in like a master storyteller. He reveals each characters insights layer by layer as they become aware of themselves and the world around them. The dark side of life is palpable and disconcerting.

[Story Holes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lost Nation is a memorable (read: unfortunately, unforgettable) tale of an alcoholic who ran away from his mistakes and heartbreak to sell rum, fabric, and a child whore he won in a poker game to the unfortunate souls living out in the disputed lands between Canada and the United States circa 1840 where Vermont would eventually be. If you like chickens, have chickens, or enjoy eating chicken, be forewarned, this tale includes intimate relations with a drunk and chickens. Not even chicken holes were left unfilled. The hole that was left empty and in desperate need of filling is what happened to the traveling man with the monkey. The monkey with the special talent of jerking off in front of drunks at the saloon... to completion ON command. Thankfully they did not leave us hanging on what happened to the roll of fabric that was in the beginning of the book (One hole the author made sure to fill himself was the status of a roll of purple fabric the valiant protagonist initially bought/stole(?)/had acquired at the very beginning of the woe filled tale). It was finally used to make a dress for the prostitute who really wins in the end of the book and that is what makes it a great novel. If you say so. This book was read for a bar bookclub and it certainly provided many an area for great discussion. I give this 4 out of 5 stars for the authors ability to fill numerous holes, all species included.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, things were sure different in 1834. No internet or smart phones. No phones at all! How did people survive? Just barely. Certainly glad to be alive now. Blood, the story's main character is trudging through Vermont/Connecticut border with Canada. Headed there to make a new start. His past is clouded with sadness. Needed to get away. He has an oxen powered cart full of supplies and hopes to make a go of it once he finds the right spot. I forgot to mention he is accompanied by a 16 year old girl who he won in a poker game. The book chronicles their attempt to survive in a very desolate place. He has issues from his previous life, she has issues from her previous life. And the place he sets up in has a whole lot of issues. It's very dark but very well written. No spoilers from me but it's worth reading.

[Joanne Leddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brutal. Ugly. Absolutely captivating. I couldn’t stop reading. It’s not often that a book storyline surprises me. This one has twists and turns I didn’t see coming. I really felt for the characters and the hard lives they led. I found myself cheering when they succeeded even though it would mean death for others. It makes me wonder how I would have lived (or even survived) in undeveloped lands in the early 1800s. Surely not as well as I imagine.

[Susan Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t say this easily about the books I read, but I couldn’t put this one down. I loved the writing style, the characters, the setting. The plot was certainly dark, and there’s a good amount of violence, but, well, I can handle that better in writing than on the screen.
It all takes place in 1830’s northern New Hampshire, which apparently at the time was a disputed territory, so independent, a bit like the wild West, and fraught, always on edge. As someone who now makes my home in neighboring Vermont, this historical perspective was fascinating. Life was hard, barren, the people tough. Some were perceptive and smart about decisions that affected the community, others less so. Bad decisions had life- and community-shattering consequences, quite literally.
The two main characters are Blood, a middle-aged man, running from his past and his own conscience, wise and well-educated, but living the life of a hardscrabble, often mean, but sometimes kind trader/tavern keeper/brothel owner. And Sally, a teenage girl who’d grown up knowing nothing but whoring; she knows nothing of reading and writing, has never eaten butter or eggs, but is sharp and strong as anyone. Whatever hell Blood puts her through, especially initially, it’s all better than what she’d experienced before him. Both these characters are highly attuned to the dynamics of people and life around them, and to each other. I felt very deeply for both of them.
As readers we watch the slowly percolating effects of the arrival of Blood and Sally on this small isolated town in New Hampshire. Lent masterfully peels off the layers of their characters to reveal their pasts, their strengths and weaknesses, their yearnings. The language of the book, both exposition and dialog, matched the environment; I thought it was masterfully written. It all held me spellbound throughout.

[Ramey Channell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing, engrossing book. Almost a 'Poldark and Demelza' story, but overshadowed by the raw cruelty and violence of early nineteenth century backwoods America. A harsh, startling, and original novel set in the wild country on the border of New Hampshire and Canada, an ungoverned territory called the Indian Stream. Jeffrey Lent is an amazingly original and talented writer. Lost Nation is a remarkable book.

[Ian Mapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been on my reading list for a longtime and on my shelf for a while, as i plough through what I thought were better books.

The premise - large print text and a story set in the early 1800s about a man named blood strugling across the barren american/canadian wilderness to a place called Indian Stream - with a 17 year old whore who is won in a game of cards, does not sound the greatest.

However, within 30 pages, you are hooked by the beautful langauge, very strong characterisation and mystery of where the characters have come from and where they are going.

The two main characters are blood (think the name is chosen due to family committments) and sally. Blood is a man with a secret - slowly and beautfully revealed over the course of the book. He is an educated man, who scrapes out a living as a trader - setting up a brothel/bar in the town of indian springs. Sally is resourceful and not had much of a life, grateful for any of the tenderness that blood shows.

They setup in town, where the remaining characters are introduced as if they were in a nick cave song. hard men, drinking hard and fighting.

There is political intrique, as the location is in dispute between the canadians and americans and they decide to decalre independance, resulting in escalating violence.

Blood stays as an independant strong force...selling his wares but not joining in with any of the local schemes.... meaning he is never trusted or accepted.

His back story is slowly revealed - and it transpires that he is a man on the run from his family - a flawed character, who slept around and drove his wife to suicide. Two strangers come looking for him and these are his surviving kids.

Everything is going wonderfully with the book, until right at the end when a huge gun battle in the pub takes place between the locals and blood and ends with his demise.

A tacked on ending shows sally marrying and growing old..... the end does not seem to add to the story.

Characters are so well defined that if I went on skyarts book show - blood is a name of a literary character who you would want to be.

This wont be the last lent book that I read.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lost Nation is a richly textured landscape of the early 19th Century life. Lent's precise sensory details bring to life characters and their struggles with authority in a wild place between boundary lines. It raises great questions about sense of place, community involvement and explores how our current geography was carved up- through logic or coercion or luck. The book has a gripping plot that moves quickly along a natural arch slowly revealing very layered and realistic characters . No one is purely bad or good, they are all very human. Certain elements seemed extraneous, only contrived to increase the sense of mystery and confusion within the plot- for example Blood's exchange with the Indian seemed only loosely associated with the true text of the story and only included as an historical marker to remind us that there were deeper layers that the book was not going to deal with but that the author wanted readers to be aware of and for no other reason than to forestal controversy over why he ignored the native population's in his story.

Though the book jumped right into the action, I think Lent missed on his ending. He should have ended it where he tried to, without tacking on the nice neat bow of the epilogue, a chapter that felt too neat and too contrived when pinned to the raw, emotional and fast paced story that preceded it. It is because of the saccharine ending that the book received only four stars and not the five that the prose so richly deserved.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find this author's writing so beautiful. He is able to create a scene, a world described so fluidly I am unaware of reading but feel as if I am seeing the action, the story, everything as if it is right in front of me.
I have read two previous novels although not yet In The Fall which may be his best known work. I feel prudish saying I dislike all the sexual content although it fits well in his stories, just feels a little too gratuitous for my taste. Maybe the only reason I do not rate him more highly. Simply strikes a sour note for me in an otherwise sublime reading experience. His characters stay so thoroughly in my mind as well and his dialogue is truly beautiful and believable despite some triteness or silliness exposed. I can imagine though that some readers would scoff and dislike his effect but to me it is simply magical.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read all year. At times both brutal and tender, this gritty drama set in the wilds of Northeast America in the early 1800's will not be for everyone, but some of the writing was so beautiful that I had to catch my breath, stop and reread certain passages several times, just to savor them. Although the setting is in the East, some have called this a Western, and I would agree, to the extent that it follows people on the edge of wilderness, trying to learn to be civilized. Besides that, it's a love story of sorts, with memorable characters that will stick in your head long after you finish the last sentence. With this book, I have solidified what I have long suspected is my favorite genre: the literary western. I sat and read most of the day to finish this one, and I haven't done that with a book for a long, long time.

[William Clemens · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started the book I was not prepared for what I got. The grizzled hard hearted mountain man with a dark secret and his young, naive, but tough as nails whore headed off into the wilderness to make their way in the world. I worried, but Lent's writing made these characters very real, and his descriptions of the country were amazing and drew me in. I was utterly unprepared for the twists in the end, and the way the story wrapped up was horrible and touching at the same time. There is a small dark part of me that wished there had been no consolation and happiness and that things had gotten as dark as it seemed they were going to but I am glad that the bitter end was tempered with hope/

[Tucker Woychuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give it a 3.5 stars. This was historical fiction, much different from what I usually read and a bit slower but it was an interesting premise w some bat shit crazy characters. I don’t think I’ve ever been so gagged reading a book. Probably gonna explore this genre some more. It definitely had some slow parts and the ending was disappointing but overall good book👍🏻

[~mad · Rating 5 out of 5]

2.4.12 - 8:26 pm - I've read other of this author's books. Let's see how this one measures up!

This book was extraordinary but not a story for just everyone to read - it is tough, violent, disturbing and while probably the situations are real - they are uncomfortable. BUT Mr Lent's writing is such that I could not put this one down tho I had to to take a rest from the harshness of some of the situations in the book.

Give it a try, if you will - I will read other of this author's books, in fact, I have one ready right now as soon as I finish my next book!

[Dollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story takes place in 1839 and is about a man named Blood. He’s a trader. He wins a girl named Sally from her mother in a poker game down in the Old Port (an area of Portland, Maine). He takes her to a settlement on the New Hampshire/Canadian border. She opens a tavern, and he whores her out. He kind of falls in love with her though. She knows someday she will leave him. It’s a pretty primitive place they live in. Not a whole lot of trust in this town and people hold grudges. This is a very dark story, but I found the characters very interesting. It was good.

[Linde · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really surprised me. It took a bit of patience to get into it, but then I had a hard time putting it down. I was truly sad to see the end of it, which I always think shows a truly good book, when you don't want it to end.
Definitely a tragedy and a very sad story that takes place back in the old settlement period. There's some strong scenes in here that would keep me from recommending to my grandmother, but I would recommend it to friends.

[J.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man called Blood--on the run from a secret past--wins a teenaged prostitute in a card game and takes her with him to a wilderness area claimed by both New Hampshire and Canada. Here among a motley crew of outcasts, renegades and struggling farmers he sets up a trader/taverner.
As might be expected, the past catches up with him and collides with an increasing violent present.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent historical fiction. Jeffrey is a great writer and this book was rich all the way to the final page.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite possibly the best book I've ever read. (And yes--that's a big statement, isn't it? I stand by it.)

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real American literature. None of the apologetic overly PC crap that infects most contemporary fiction these days. Just good writing, characters, and story.

[Valerie Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this a 5-star writing, except for the brutality and violence scattered throughout the book.

The two main characters, Blood- a 40+ year old man, running from his past, gritty, raw and flawed has won Sally in a poker game. She is a 16 year old prostitute, who actually is able to give him a run for his money. They settle in the wild west of the East - in a disputed area of New Hampshire, lawless and rough around the edges. As can be expected, two newcomers who set up a trading post/bar with a prostitute in the next room are not welcomed with open arms by the villagers.

This is not Little House on the Prairie, there are no kind and caring characters, but more like Survival of the Fittest. As the plot unravels we learn what exactly Blood is running from and in doing so, his character is explained - not necessarily becoming likable, but indeed a bit more human.

Sally's character, is also immensely complex as she accepts the fate she was born into, namely whoring, and makes the best of her life. She is illiterate and ignorant of the world.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lost Nation takes place in the early 19th century, mainly in a settlement area that is disputed over by New Hampshire and Canada. Lent describes this world vividly, taking us into a little-known part of the American past that is long gone. The story begins with a somber, amoral man named Blood and Sally, a 16 year old he wins in a card game in a brothel. Lent's depiction of these characters is honest: he explores what two hopeless people are like, one who despairs for his sins and their consequences and one who has never known anything but neglect and exploitation. Eventually they settle down in a settlement where Blood opens a trading post/tavern and Sally serves as a prostitute, though on her own terms. What follows kept me engrossed, unable to put the book down.