The Whistling Season

Author of 11 books, including a finalist for the National Book Award, Ivan Doig is hailed as the “West’s preeminent literary novelist” by The Denver Post. A Montana native and respected historian, Doig leavens this tale of the prairie frontier with wonderful humor.

In 1909, struggling to farm his remote homestead and raise three sons, widower Oliver Milliron desperately needs help. A housekeeper’s ad in a Milwaukee newspaper, “Can’t cook but doesn’t bite,” leads him to hire her sight unseen.

When perky Rose Llewellyn arrives, she brings along her brainy brother, Morris.

Though Rose whistles through her work at the Milliron house, and Morris becomes teacher at the one-room school, these two newcomers conceal a past that is colorful and infamous.

Told through the eyes of Oliver’s 13-year-old son, The Whistling Season is filled with humor, hardship, and surprising moments of discovery.

“The Whistling Season is a book to pass on to your favorite readers: a story of lives of active choice, lived actively.”—Publishers Weekly