W

A 1000-year-old Viking is discovered frozen on the slopes of Mt. Hood, Oregon – three thousand miles further west than any previously known Viking-Age exploration. While the world is focused on this remarkable discovery, Josh Kinninger’s world is falling apart. Three personal tragedies have left him bitterly angry and emotionally unmoored. Inspired by the Viking discovery, Josh plans a desperate western journey of his own to wreak a bizarre vengeance on the morally corrupt individuals who have piqued his ire.

Josh, however, isn’t the only Kinninger who tries to run away from his problems – and the problems of his country – by heading west.

Josh’s ancestor, Jefferson, in 1860, embarks on a tragic journey by wagon train along the Oregon Trail to escape the violent strife preceding the Civil War. And Jefferson’s namesake descendant, one hundred years later, takes off westward to escape the racism of the Jim Crow South and to make a new life in San Francisco as a jazz musician. They each discover, however, that there are some things you cannot run away from.

By turns comic and tragic, W weaves several stories and styles into a rich literary fabric.