Makepeace calls himself sheriff of his hardscrabble town, but he is also its only resident - the last of a group of settlers who have fled the poisoned cities of the West. The miraculous appearance of a refugee from the vast emptiness of the forest awakens this loner to a longing for life among others, but when he takes to the road, Makepeace finds a world unraveling: deserted cities with trees shooting up through the asphalt; stockaded villages enforcing a rough and uncertain justice; mysterious slave camps laboring to harness the little-understood technologies of an expired civilization. On his side, Makepeace has resilience, a sense of humor that comes to life at the diciest moments, and a well-concealed core of humanity: a resource that will be his salvation.

Far North leads the reader on a quest through an unforgettable arctic landscape. Suffused with an ecstatic awareness of the fragility of the world, and its sometimes unexpected ability to recover from our worst trespasses, Far North is a muscular, visionary novel of retribution and forgiveness.