Howard Norman's first novel tells the story of a boy named Noah and his friend Pelly. Noah has been raised in the remote, one house village of Padua Lake and Pelly lives in the Cree-Indian village of Quill. During the summers, Noah goes to stay with Pelly's family. Howard Norman is the author of two books of translation from North Canadian Algonquin languages - "The Wishing Bone Cycle: Narrative Poems from the Swampy Cree Indians" which was awarded the Harold Morton Landon Prize by the Academy of American Poets and "Where the Chill Came From: Windigo Tales and Journeys". He received a Whitings Writer's Award for "The Northern Lights".