LITERARY FICTION   ECCO/HARPERCOLLINS   12/1/2026

A NOVEL THAT FOLLOWS THE INTERTWINED LIVES OF A SMALL-TOWN MIDWESTERN POLICE CHIEF AND A YOUNG MAN RECENTLY RELEASED FROM PRISON, EACH IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE

It’s 1986, deep winter in Minnesota’s hinterland: remote Middle America of demolition derbies and downtown diners, a place so frozen and secluded that the world beyond its borders barely registers. Here, Gordon Trent, a police chief facing mandatory retirement, and Byron Lugo, a young man recently released from Stillwater prison, find themselves caught between conflicting views of the past and opposed notions of redemption.

Winter Song is a moving and pitch-perfect examination of love, community, identity, and the redress of past wrongs in working-class America—and marks the introduction of a brilliant new literary voice.