Fraternal twins, separated at birth, are raised in the same small town, where they struggle for freedom from their families, their destinies, and, sometimes, each other—all with the underground railroad as a haunting presence in their lives
Clement and Angel are fraternal twins separated at birth; they grow up in the same small, frontier logging town of Stillwater, Minnesota. Clement was left at the orphanage. Angel was adopted by the town's richest couple, but is marked and threatened by her adoptive mother's manic attention. They rarely meet, but Clement knows if he is truly in need, Angel will come. They have both learned to survive at the edge of things — amid the hardscrabble lives of pioneers, nuns, fur trappers, loggers, runaway slaves and freedmen, outlaws and people of conscience, all seeking a freer, more prosperous future. Stillwater is a lyrical, vibrant, often hilarious, and always unforgettable journey into our past, ourselves, and the impulses that drive us to create, explore, and — sometimes — destroy.