DEBUT Opening in summer 1977, Davidson's powerful debut novel about California logging families slowly uncovers the dirty secrets of the Sanderson Timber Company. Everyone's livelihood depends on Sanderson, so no one is talking about how they harvest Damnation Grove: spraying with herbicides similar to Agent Orange, working loggers to exhaustion and injury, and using force to eliminate anyone who speaks out against their practices. Fourth-generation logger Rich Gundersen is worn down from his injuries, while his wife, Colleen, a midwife, regularly witnesses miscarriages and the birth of malformed babies. Daniel Bywater, a Yurok fish biologist whose tribe has fished the area's creeks for centuries, arrives to study the suspect water quality and declining fish population. His presence, along with the protesters blocking roads and sabotaging machinery, stirs up unspeakable violence. Rich sees a way out, by purchasing an old-growth redwood stand whose million-dollar timber harvest should set up his family for life, but he doesn't count on family betrayal and the ruthlessness of timber company executives, the worst traitors of all. VERDICT Davidson's riveting page-turner reveals one harsh reality after another, with no happy ending. The stakes are high, loyalty vanishes, and family ties mean nothing. A strong writer to watch.--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

Davidson's impressive debut chronicles life in a working-class community so thoroughly that the reader feels the characters' anguish as they're divided over environmental concerns that threaten their lives and livelihoods. The tale unfolds between 1977 and 1978 and follows the Gundersen family: husband and wife Rich and Colleen; and their kindergartner son, Chub. Rich is a fourth-generation logger who dreams of a less financially burdensome future for his family when, without telling Colleen, he plunks down their savings to buy a ridge near their home in Northern California with a harvestable forest of primordial redwoods. Meanwhile Colleen--who has suffered eight miscarriages before and after Chub's birth and who, as the local midwife, has witnessed a disturbing number of defective births--is listening to an environmentalist friend's warning that the defoliants used by the timber company that employs Rich are leaching lethal toxins into the local water supply. Davidson mirrors the tension between Rich and Colleen with empathetic descriptions of the struggles of their neighbors, many of whom cling desperately to their jobs in the face of mounting evidence that their duplicitous employer is poisoning them. The depiction of ordinary people trapped by circumstances beyond their control makes for a heart-wrenching modern American tragedy. Agent: Chris Parris-Lamb, the Gernert Co. (Aug.)

The giant redwood was named the 24-7 about 100 years ago, when it was 24 feet, 7 inches wide. By 1977, it was more than 30 feet wide. For Rich Gundersen, the 24-7 and the ridge of unfelled forest it inhabits represent generations of dreams, and when he gets the chance to buy it, he takes it. He doesn't immediately tell his wife, Colleen, younger by 19 years and suffering after the latest in a series of miscarriages. But mysterious skulls, illnesses, mudslides, and threats soon endanger his plans. The couple and their one child, a five-year-old boy, are surrounded by a close-knit timber community, including Colleen's sister and her brood of six kids, an old friend who leaves his property with a drive-through redwood tree about once a decade but still knows all the goings-on about town, and Daniel, Colleen's Yurok ex-boyfriend, who comes back into the picture. Their struggles and heartbreaks play out on the richly rendered backdrop of a community on the brink of major change.

Big business, protesters, and working-class loggers clash in this environmentally savvy debut. Davidson's novel takes place in Northern California forest territory between 1977 and 1978, as Rich Gundersen, a fourth-generation logger, is poised to make a big profit: He's just purchased a stretch of land full of old-growth redwoods whose sale could provide security for his family, which is smaller than he'd like; he and his wife, Colleen, have one son, Graham (nicknamed Chub), but as the story opens she's just had another in a string of miscarriages. Other crises soon emerge. Anti-logging protesters are trying to halt work and are suspected of having left a child's skull in the forest to prompt an investigation. Colleen, a midwife, witnesses an increase in stillbirths, many with serious deformations. Daniel, a researcher and Colleen's ex-boyfriend, suspects chemicals sprayed by the timber company are responsible, but any delay to investigate threatens Rich's plans to cut down and sell the redwoods. Davidson researched this milieu deeply but with an eye toward making every discovery feel natural and unforced. By shifting perspectives among Rich, Colleen, and Chub, she reveals not just the conflicts among loggers, protesters, and companies, but the growing stress within the family. The family of Colleen's sister, Enid, whose husband is working an illicit tree-poaching scam, adds another layer of tension. (And Colleen can't help but resent that Enid's brood is ever growing: "Enid uncrosses her legs for two minutes and a baby pops out.") As thoughtfully as Davidson establishes these dilemmas, she's equally skilled at writing an outdoorsy adventure novel in which logging threatens the lives of workers with snapped cables and everybody else via landslides. Thematically, it's a strong work of climate fiction, but it's rooted in age-old man-versus-nature storytelling. An impressively well-turned story about how environmental damage creeps into our bodies, psyches, and economies. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.