The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson

Title: The Seed Keeper
Author: Diane Wilson
Release Date: 3.9.21
Publisher: Milkweed



Goodreads Summary:
A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakota people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato--where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited.

On a winter's day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband's farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron--women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools.

Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.

My Review:

Quick take: one of the most beautiful books I've read in years. This eco-feminist multi-generational saga taught me so much about the history of the Dakota tribe, their sacred seed-keeping rituals, and the numerous hardships they endured. Woven into multiple timelines to create a poetic, heart-breaking, and quietly hopeful story, this novel blurs the lines between literary fiction and nonfiction in a way that haunts me. Since reading it, I have been thinking more deeply about families and legacies. I would recommend this to book clubs who are looking for more in-depth discussions than a big bestseller might provide and to readers interested in strong female characters, Indigenous histories, farming, or gardening.