Jimmy Bluefeather, Kim Heacox
Jimmy Bluefeather, Kim Heacox
33 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Jimmy Bluefeather

Author: Kim Heacox

Narrator: Kaipo Schwab

Unabridged: 10 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/13/2022

Categories: Fiction


Synopsis

Old Keb Wisting is somewhere around ninety-five years old (he lost count awhile ago) and in constant pain and thinks he wants to die. He also thinks he thinks too much. Part Norwegian and part Tlingit Native ("with some Filipino and Portuguese thrown in"), he's the last living canoe carver in the village of Jinkaat, in Southeast Alaska.

When his grandson, James, a promising basketball player, ruins his leg in a logging accident and tells his grandpa that he has nothing left to live for, Old Keb comes alive and finishes his last canoe, with help from his grandson. Together (with a few friends and a crazy but likeable dog named Steve) they embark on a great canoe journey. Suddenly all of Old Keb's senses come into play, so clever and wise in how he reads the currents, tides, and storms. Nobody can find him. He and the others paddle deep into wild Alaska, but mostly into the human heart, in a story of adventure, love, and reconciliation. With its rogue's gallery of colorful, endearing, small-town characters, this book stands as a wonderful blend of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and John Nichols's The Milagro Beanfield War, with dashes of John Steinbeck thrown in.

About Kim Heacox

Kim Heacox is an award-winning author, photographer, and motivational speaker. He lives with his wife in Southeast Alaska and is the author of several books, including John Muir and the Ice that Started a Fire and the novel Caribou Crossing. His feature articles have appeared in Audubon, Travel & Leisure, Wilderness, Islands, Orion, and National Geographic Traveler. His editorials, written for the Los Angeles Times, have appeared in many major newspapers. When not playing the guitar, doing simple carpentry, or writing another novel, hes sea kayaking with his wife, Melanie or watching a winter wren on the woodpile.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Carl on November 15, 2015

I don't read much fiction. I read this book because not long ago I traveled with the author and have kept up a correspondence; he's a good guy. But that's not why I am saying that Jimmy Bluefeather is perhaps the best-written novel I've ever read, one of the best books I've ever read, and certainly......more

Goodreads review by L.G. on March 15, 2021

I found this well conceived and well written storyline exceptional and engrossing, with enough different characters and connected threads to keep a reader attentive, or a lazy reader annoyed. A story both inspiring and poignant, with a bonus in conveying much more than the printed words with insight......more

Goodreads review by Lynette on February 01, 2016

A crystalline gem of a book - one of the best I have read recently. There is a surface story of Keb Wisting, a Tlingit-Norwegian canoe carver, who helps his grandson heal emotionally after an accident destroys his NBA dreams. The deeper layers of this story reveal the humor and heart of being human.......more

Goodreads review by Lorraine on October 07, 2024

What a beautifully written book! I really enjoyed it, specially because I was recently in Glacier Bay and it really brought me back to the glaciers and beauty of Alaska. I loved his descriptions, and humor in this lovely story. A story of a true Alaskan, life the way it used to be, and the inevitabl......more

Goodreads review by Kathleen on October 22, 2015

Best book I've read all year. Wonderful characters, beautiful scenery descriptions, heartwarming story about Alaska.......more