AEGOLIUS CREEK leaves readers contemplating our ties to place and family, how we strive for worth and meaning, and ultimately, what-if anything-we can claim as our own.

Don Karlsson has lived on his family's Oregon homestead for most of his life. The timber on his land is his greatest asset-planted and replenished by his hand, maintained with his labor and sweat, and harvested for income at his discretion.

After a new species of voles is discovered living in those trees, authorities step in to protect the creatures, and Karlsson fights back. No one can tell him what to do with his property. He enlists the help of his children: Billy, a local who understands his father's connection to the land; Stacy, a fierce attorney from Boston determined to represent her father's interests-even if they go against her own; and the beloved and sensitive youngest, Zeke, who organizes local environmentalists to make sure his father does not win.

The impending confrontation engulfs the community and competing interests-local businesses and political groups, infiltrators seeking profit-with the Karlsson family at the center, still trying to reconcile the loss of Don's wife and their mother, Marlene. Tempers flare, desperate acts are taken, and the courtroom battle spills over into protests and riots, leading to a riveting and stunning conclusion.