A Note from Kent about
God’s Country

I began work on the manuscript for my first Cork O’Connor novel, Iron Lake, in the spring of 1992. I had two thoughts in mind back then. First, I wanted to write something that was good enough to be published. And second, I wanted to write something that I would be proud of. One thing I didn’t have in mind was creating a long-running series. God’s Country is my twenty-second Cork O’Connor novel. I am, quite frankly, amazed by this.

I’ve often been unkind to Cork in these stories. He gets beat up a lot. He’s been shot a couple of times. He’s lost a wife and a daughter. It would be understandable if his view of the world were to become a bitter one. But somehow he’s always managed to hold onto a profound belief in the grace of God, the Creator, the Great Mystery.

God’s Country, however, is a dark story, one that challenges Cork physically and spiritually. It often seems to me that the world we live in is growing more sinister by the day, the cruelties multiplying. More and more I find myself questioning who we are as human beings. And like so many mindful people, I ask myself, how do we come through the fire of anger and the chaos of hate to a place of healing?

This is the profound question Cork must answer in God’s Country. He’s always found solace in the natural world, in the beauty and spirit of the great Northwoods he calls home. In this story, Cork’s long journey into that vast wilderness will challenge his belief in both God and the healing power of Nature. For Cork, it will be a deep look into the dark potential of every human heart, including his own.

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William Kent Krueger is the #1 bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the Cork O’Connor series

William Kent Krueger is the New York Times bestselling author of This Tender Land, Ordinary Grace (winner of the Edgar Award for best novel), as well as twenty acclaimed books in the Cork O’Connor mystery series, including Fox Creek, Desolation Mountain and Sulfur Springs. He lives in the Twin Cities with his family.

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William Kent Krueger
William Kent Krueger
Thanks to the Literary Lounge for this review of ORDINARY GRACE! "Read it when you need to remember that even in the hardest seasons, grace is always, quietly, at work."You know those books that feel less like reading and more like sitting on a porch swing with a wise old friend? Ordinary Grace is that book.I picked it up expecting a mystery (and it is, in part—a boy’s tragic death haunts a small Minnesota town in 1961). But what I got was something far richer: a gentle, aching, beautiful story about family, faith, and the messiness of growing up.The narrator, Frank Drum, looks back on the summer he turned thirteen—the summer death visited his town not once, but four times. It sounds bleak, I know. But here’s the magic of Krueger’s writing: this isn’t a dark book. It’s a humane one. It’s about a Methodist pastor father who struggles with his own doubts, a mother who hides her grief behind piano keys, and siblings who are learning that adults don’t have all the answers.What made this so relatable to me is the way Krueger captures that specific moment in childhood when the world cracks open. Remember the first time you realized your parents were scared? Or that bad things can happen to good people for no reason at all? That’s this book. Frank doesn’t solve the universe’s problems—he just learns to live alongside them, and that felt profoundly real.The “ordinary grace” of the title is everywhere. It’s in a neighbor sharing a meal. In a father sitting in silence with his son. In forgiveness that isn’t loud or dramatic, but quiet and stubborn. By the final page, I wasn’t crying because the story was sad. I was crying because I felt so seen—in my own childhood losses, my own family’s quiet heroisms, and the way life somehow stitches itself back together after heartbreak.If you loved A Man Called Ove, The Secret Life of Bees, or even To Kill a Mockingbird, you will sink into this book like a warm blanket on a cold night. It’s not flashy. It’s not twisty. It’s just true.Read it when you need to remember that even in the hardest seasons, grace is always, quietly, at work. ... See MoreSee Less

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