Leviathan

In this gritty epic of the American West, a mysterious discovery threatens the uneasy peace of a Montana ranching town, uncovering powerful secrets and generational betrayal hidden just beneath the surface. In desolate eastern Montana, death and debt have forced Orr to sell the last of his family land. One day, while working his former property for the new owner—a sinister oil company power broker—Orr accidentally unearths a colossal ancient skeleton, igniting a race to control the bones and the mysterious forces they unleash. On the neighboring reservation, Florence Badhawk, a tribal policewoman who has spurned traditional justice for something more brutal, searches for her missing sister. As the state prepares for a once-in-a-century blizzard, the investigation sets Florence on a collision course with Orr’s ranch and his haunting discovery, as well as the ruthless powers that now control the ranch. Set in a landscape both bleak and breathtaking, Leviathan is a beautifully constructed, propulsive epic filled with gunslingers, ghosts, and frontier justice that richly explores how historical cycles of exploitation and violence continue to shape the West, as well as the interior forces that trap people in their own lives. Sweeping and magisterial, Jesse Nee-Vogelman’s stunning debut explores a legacy of blood and betrayal that’s as old as the land itself—and why some secrets stay buried for a reason.