LUCKY TURTLE
“An epic love story . . . No greater reading pleasure to be had anywhere.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
When sixteen-year-old Cindra Zoeller is sent to a reform camp in Montana after being involved in an armed robbery, she is thrust into a world of mountains and cowboys and prayers and miscreants and people from all walks of life like she’s never seen in suburban Massachusetts. At Camp Challenge, she becomes transfixed by Lucky, a camp employee of mysterious origin—an origin of constant speculation—and the chemistry between them is instant, and profound. The pair escape together into the wilderness to create an idyllic life far from the reach of the law,
“An epic love story . . . No greater reading pleasure to be had anywhere.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
When sixteen-year-old Cindra Zoeller is sent to a reform camp in Montana after being involved in an armed robbery, she is thrust into a world of mountains and cowboys and prayers and miscreants and people from all walks of life like she’s never seen in suburban Massachusetts. At Camp Challenge, she becomes transfixed by Lucky, a camp employee of mysterious origin—an origin of constant speculation—and the chemistry between them is instant, and profound. The pair escape together into the wilderness to create an idyllic life far from the reach of the law, living off their resounding love, Lucky’s vast knowledge of the wilderness, and a little help from some friends.
But they can run from the outside world for only so long, and the consequences of their naïve fantasy of a future together—and circumstances shaped by skin color—will keep them apart for decades. Cindra gets trapped in a relationship, safely if stultifyingly suburban, where she is both cosseted and controlled by a man who claims to be her rescuer. But for Cindra, there will never be another Lucky, and she dreams of one day finding him, the only man she’s ever fully trusted, her soulmate.
Page-turning, full of vivid characters, delicious suspense, and ultimately joy, Lucky Turtle is a big- hearted, deeply engrossing love story from one of our most entertaining and perceptive writers.
- Algonquin Books
- Hardcover
- April 2022
- 416 Pages
- 9781643750972
Buy the Book
$27.95
About Bill Roorbach
Bill Roorbach is the author of five previous books of fiction, including The Girl of the Lake, the Kirkus Prize finalist The Remedy for Love, the bestselling Life Among Giants, and the Flannery O’Connor Award–winning collection Big Bend. His memoir in nature, Temple Stream, won the Maine Literary Award in nonfiction. Roorbach has received fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He held the William H. P. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. His craft book, Writing Life Stories, has been in print for twenty-five years. His writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Ploughshares, Granta, Ecotone, New York magazine, and other publications. He lives in Maine with his family.
Praise
“Nobody else could have written this gorgeous novel, full to the brim with tragedy but also fun, as well as the best kind of romance —embracing so much more than the couple at its center. Cindra is an impeccably loyal and honest narrator, our perfect guide through the wilds of Montana. Lucky Turtle is an ode and a love letter to our wounded, imperfect, and oh-so-beautiful world.”—Nina de Gramont, author of The Christie Affair
“No one writes about love or the American wilderness like Bill Roorbach. A thrilling, blistering tale of young love and old hate and the steady endurance of both.”—Lily King, author of Five Tuesdays in Winter
“Roorbach is a consummate raconteur skilled in breathing life into his characters. His prose is well-suited to the Montana landscape, capacious yet created with poetic economy, evoking the splendor of nature in language that sparkles like crystal clear mountain water . . . Roorbach’s understated, luminescent novel beautifully evokes an idyllic world created when two hearts are braided together.”—Booklist, starred review
“Two great love affairs—one between characters, the other with the wilds of Montana as its original inhabitants knew it—surge through this engaging, audacious novel. Every page hums with life and energy.”—Andrea Barrett, author of The Voyage of the Narwhal and Archangel
“At once an adventure, a love story, and a profound meditation on the grandeur of the natural world, Lucky Turtle is a novel so full of beauty and heart and pathos that you won’t want it to end, a book that hums with grace, and sings with passion. Roorbach is a national treasure.” —Jonathan Evison, author of Small World
Discussion Questions
Bill Roorbach, author of Lucky Turtle, is looking for the best book club in America. Probably yours! Bill is available for free virtual author visits for reading groups. To arrange a session with your book club, bookstore, or library, please contact billroorbach@gmail.com.
1. Life is a series of choices, and we hope to make good ones. But what of a world with few choices, or only bad ones? What are Cindra’s true choices, and, by contrast, what circumstances are pressed upon her by fate or family? What are Lucky’s true choices?
2. We’re getting the story of Lucky and Cindra through Cindra’s eyes. How clearly does she see the story? How clearly does she see herself? In what ways are we readers able to see Cindra through the eyes of others, to understand things she may not?
3. How does the present story affect our reading of the past story? And how does the past story affect our reading of the present? How does your view of Cindra shift during the course of the novel? Your view of Lucky?
4. What are Clay Marvelette’s reasons for being so helpful to the young runaways? In what ways does he fail them, and in what ways is he their savior?
5. Maria is Lucky’s aunt by tradition, and he fully accepts her as such. What is their actual relationship? What other roles does Maria play in Lucky’s life?
6. How is Montana a kind of character in Lucky Turtle? Turtle Butte? The wilderness? Does the setting of San Francisco work in the same way, or is there something different about its role? What are the most important roles nature plays in the novel?
7. Far Turtle, Lucky’s grandfather, lives a complicated life. How do his trials and travels and beliefs redound on Lucky’s life, and on the story?
8. Cindra early in life rejects her suburban identity, only to be haunted by it. How would she escape the confines of privilege? In what ways is that possible—or impossible—for Cindra or for anyone who grows up as she does?
9. Lucky’s background is a puzzle that Cindra slowly unravels. From clues and discoveries and revelations in the book, explain that background.
10. Dora Dryden Conover is a complicated soul. What is her role in Lucky’s development? What are her motivations both at camp and in the world? How does she see Cindra?
11. Francie and Cindra become very close. What is their initial attraction? What are the ties that gradually bind them together? Is this a friendship that can last, or is it based on extreme circumstances?
12. Discuss the role that each character’s race plays in the story.
13. The ancient Greeks thought the world could be divided into four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. How do those elements function in Lucky Turtle?
14. Non-human animals are a constant presence in the novel. Do animals have souls? Do they make choices? How do they fit into Lucky’s and Cindra’s lives? How do they affect the story?
15. The American story is a mélange of myth and fact, opinion and history, progress and reaction. How does Lucky’s story reflect the predominant American story? In what ways does it reject it? Is there more than one American story?