Summary

In Chapter 1, John Borne has breakfast with his grandparents. No one at the table is happy because John’s grandfather, Clay, was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer on a visit to the hospital in Grand Forks. Thirteen year-old John has lived with his grandparents since the age of four, when his parents were killed in a plane crash. John attempts to see that his grandfather is dying, but he cannot see it. The family has long made all their own meat by hunting, and it is easy to see death on a dying animal. Clay carries on as if nothing is different, making wood carvings and playing jokes. He even comments that the inch of snow on the ground outside will make tracking easier for hunting deer. John is stunned, however, when Clay announces that John must hunt alone this year. In the past...