The Seed Keeper

A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Big Reads Selection Winner of the Minnesota Book Award A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhta familys struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakhta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesnt return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankatowhere the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies theyve inherited. On a winters day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husbands farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of ironwomen who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools. Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors. Honors for The Seed Keeper: Winner of the Minnesota Book Award in Fiction A BuzzFeed "Best Book of Spring" A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year A Bustle Most Anticipated Debut Novel A Bon Appetit Best Summer Read A Thrillist Best New Book of Spring A Ms. Magazine Best Book of the Year A Books Are Magic Most Anticipated Book of the Year Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions A Daily Beast Best Summer Read