True North (Dutton, 2000)
For six years Bailey Lockhart has lived alone in the Alaskan bush, supporting herself from the cockpit of a floatplane. She is the only white woman in a land owned by the local Ingalik tribe; her closest neighbor is a fellow bush pilot and activist named Kash. Bailey and Kash are drawn to each other, but their fiercely independent natures keep them apart. When two Easterners hire Bailey to pilot them into the bush, a series of events is set in motion that will upset the delicate racial balance of the land and lead to violence. As the truth behind the couple's arrival becomes apparent, the refuge Bailey has created for herself shatters. Forced to face the demons of her unresolved past, she is given a chance to free herself at last from the secret that haunts her. Marked by spare, resonant prose and imbued with an indelible sense of place, True North tells a powerful story of adventure and survival.
Reviews
How everyone goes about surviving the climate is entertaining. Kimberly Kafka makes Bailey come alive in the cockpit of her red Cessna… but the real story is the sneaky tourists and the criminal elements, human and otherwise, they arouse. New York Times Book Review, April 2, 2000.
True North builds to the raw conflict between Indians and Whites in modern day Alaska. In True North, the landscape looms, but more as a state of mind. Kimberly Kafka’s focus is on the community: that essential organism that individuals in extreme environments depend on. Los Angeles Times, March 19, 2000.
In Kafka’s unblinking thriller…racial and political tensions are nicely wrought, but it’s the authentic descriptions of the desolate Alaskan bush that really elevate this first novel. Grade A-minus. Entertainment Weekly, Summer double issue, 2000.
True North is an adventure story with a difference. You don’t rush headlong toward a conclusion but linger slowly over the evocation of place and character. Patience pays off as suspense builds. Midway, this novel becomes a page-turner. Sensitive and insightful. The landscape is even more sharply drawn in terse but powerful prose that wastes nothing. USA Today, March 23, 2000.
In Kimberly Kafka’s riveting first novel, True North, the Alaskan frontier is blinding beauty and unforgiving beast. What really drives True North and gives it substance is the almost constant suspense, whether between man and woman, bear and human, gold panner and river, or native and white person. There’s always the background of Alaska itself—remote, grand, and dramatic. Boston (Sunday) Globe, March 13, 2000.
In beautiful prose, Kimberly Kafka tells a tale that moves through a series of stirring action scenes toward an inevitable clash. True North is a good old-fashioned tale of courage, lust and gold rush fever set in Alaska’s wilderness. Boston Herald, April 2, 2000.
Alaska’s magnificently unyielding landscape is a palpable force in Kimberly Kafka’s earthy first novel, True North, but the wilderness never overwhelms her protagonists. Elle, March 2000.
This compelling literary adventure will take you on a wild ride. Glamour, March 2000.