Quietly powerful, deeply introspective, and emotionally profound.
Linde’s twelfth installment in the Waldwick Series is a deeply introspective and emotionally resonant novel that examines both the visible collapse of rural America and the quieter, more personal fractures that occur within individuals forced to confront change, loss, and truth. As rural Wisconsin’s farms disappear, the Terrill family discovers a vast seam of zinc beneath their land—offering hope, but at an unbearable cost. Strip mining offers the promise of financial survival. But it will erase generations of heritage. As Amelia returns and Melia, Derrick, and V confront deepening divisions, the family must face painful questions of loyalty, survival, and truth. In a town where progress risks reshaping identity itself, the Terrills are forced to decide whether securing their future is worth sacrificing the legacy that defines them.
Linde frames the crisis not as a simple dispute over land, but as a deeply personal struggle over identity, survival, and belonging. The farmland is more than an economic resource—it holds generations of memory, sacrifice, and meaning. The discovery of zinc beneath it introduces both hope and fear. For some, it offers a chance to save their families and restore stability. For others, it represents an irreversible loss of heritage. Linde treats the conflict with nuance and care. He shows a community grappling with choices that resist easy answers or comfortable conclusions.
Amelia, whose return to Waldwick coincides with her fight against leukemia, remains at the story’s center. Her experimental CAR-T therapy mirrors the town’s own crisis. As her body undergoes change to survive, the community faces the same difficult possibility. Amelia is portrayed with honesty and restraint—not as a symbol, but as a person shaped by experience, loss, and acceptance. Melia offers compassion and emotional clarity. Derrick carries the difficult responsibility of protecting both past and future, while V provides thoughtful strength and a quiet commitment to the Terrill family’s fragile legacy.
Linde also captures the quiet erosion of rural life with striking realism. Farms do not vanish all at once, but slowly, leaving behind absence, memory, and sorrow. His prose is measured, giving weight to the emotional reality of each decision. The novel avoids easy answers, focusing instead on the human cost of progress. What emerges is a powerful reflection on sacrifice, identity, and the uncomfortable truth that survival can require letting go of the very things that once defined us.
Readers who loved The Overstory by Richard Powers and Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger will find much to admire here.
Waldwick Partners, Inc.
dba Waldwick Books
Pub date January 2026
ISBN 979-8-9993098-1-5