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by Pamela H. Wescott (Author)
A journey of redemption, identity, and healing-where art, love, and second chances intertwine.
On Indigenous People's Day in 2022, Doro Banyan's world is upended when eleven-year-old Pedee vanishes into the Teton wilderness. Once skeptical of her role as the child's guardian, Doro is now consumed with guilt and determination. Encouraged by her bar mate, Raven, she joins the search-setting off on a journey that will challenge everything she knows about herself, family, and forgiveness.
Pedee, a feisty prodigy with a rare gift for communicating with elk, has taught Doro about life, loss, and resilience. But Wyoming holds more than one unresolved chapter for Doro. It is here, decades earlier, that she was forced to give up her newborn daughter for adoption. Now, as she searches for Pedee, she also finds Matt-the child she lost, now a transgender man teaching at the Outdoor Leadership School. Their reunion is anything but simple, as Matt struggles to reconcile his past with the woman who gave him away.
Back in Boston, Doro turns to art to process her regrets and dreams. She proposes a Bully Quilt project at Pedee's school, a powerful gesture of healing and unity-until betrayal and racial tensions threaten to unravel her progress. When the quilt is stolen and dumped into the Charles River, Doro's desperate attempt to recover it risks not just her safety, but her relationship with Pedee.
Returning to Wyoming for a second filming trip, Doro finally gives up alcohol and embraces a new purpose. As Pedee and her father build a Bully Sculpture to process their own pain, Doro realizes that healing takes many forms. Meanwhile, her lifelong artist friend, Lucca, makes a heartbreaking request-to witness and honor her chosen death in the mountains.
Through loss, love, and the courage to confront the past, Burnt Umber is a deeply moving literary novel about identity, art as a path to healing, and the power of found family. In the end, Doro discovers that the family she longed for was waiting in the most unexpected places-if only she could let go of the past to embrace it.
Perfect for fans of literary fiction that explores self-discovery, forgiveness, and the intersection of art and healing.
