Description
Pigeon Falls follows surveyor Tom Bishop and his small band of coworkers, a traveling crew of wind turbine builders, to an out-of-the-way corner of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area for one final project of the season before winter arrives. During their week amid this distinctive landscape, unforeseen challenges test the crew’s character and threaten to pry the team apart.
Caught up in the ordeals are a pig farmer hell-bent on reversing generations of family failure, a young newly-wed resisting an abusive husband, and other local citizens living the quintessential life of folks in small-town America. Tom Bishop must also sort out his own undiagnosed health issues and come to terms with whatever legacy a childless, divorced man can hope to leave behind.
In Pigeon Falls the disabling effects of hardship and greed are laid bare, yet in the end it is a story that resonates with solidarity, resilience, and hope.
Reviews
“Powerful novel of labor, fate, and American life as it’s actually lived.”
—BookLife Review from Publishers Weekly
“…a heady, enlightening, joyful ride through purpose, love, and facing life’s biggest obstacles.”
—Midwest Book Review
“…a deeply engrossing, if heartbreaking, tale that impressively refuses to succumb to melodrama.”
—Kirkus Reviews
Ted Nellen –
Pigeon Falls is a fascinating tale of money and its power, teamwork and its power, and one’s dreams and their power. The novel also contemplates the ideas of Free Will and Predetermination. More than one character is confronted with uncertainty, but Candace, a waitress at the Horseshoe Inn in Pigeon Falls, tells Tom Bishop, the novel’s protagonist, we should love the bad things that happen in our lives because when you learn from the bad things, you can make your life better. It is an idea Tom hasn’t contemplated before, but his worsening health makes him wonder how much control we have over anything.
Tom and his crew are in the small Wisconsin town of Pigeon Falls to erect platforms for Burnell Sandberg’s new wind farm. To many of the townspeople, the mere idea of a private wind farm is ludicrous.
“You the boys working on those windmills out at the Sandberg farm?” asks Dot, another waitress at the inn. Diplomatically, Warren, one of the crew, doesn’t tell her the correct term is “wind towers,” but the association to Don Quixote, who famously fought windmills, has been made. Through his “windmills” Sandberg chases the wealth and security that has eluded his family for generations, and he is willing to do anything to get what he wants. Sandberg is no Don Quixote, though. His fight is not for honor. Instead, it is Sandberg’s greed that drives him.
Whether or not to stick with an increasingly lucrative job, even with Sandberg’s ruthless demands, is the only fate Tom’s crew can control. The weather is their unbeatable foe, and it’s the weather, and their pride, that pushes the team to its limits.
Elzinga’s descriptions of the landscape throughout the novel are beautiful and worth a second reading to savor the prose and poetry. Birds, the sky, even the rolling hills, have something to teach the careful reader.
This is an excellent book that will stick with you.
Nancy Devaney (verified owner) –
I thoroughly enjoyed Pigeon Falls. I was immediately drawn into the story. The characters are diverse, and the dialogue is natural. You get a real feel for the Driftless Area of Wisconsin. Elzinga’s prose flows smoothly, and the tension builds beautifully in several places. I never thought about what went into erecting a wind tower, but I will never again pass one without thinking about it.
Diane Krause-Stetson –
Unexpected depth – Artfully woven ordinary and unforeseen life events of a work crew over just days.
Didn’t know what to expect. Found myself engaged on a road trip with a team of very different men who form an unlikely work-family. Each character is authentic and relatable. I was moved by how each of them tackles a complex, time-sensitive, and stressful project; builds respect and friendships; supports each other with strenghth and compassion; and faces personal choices along the way. The story is enriched as they interact with members of the community they are temporarily working in. Whether I see them on the horizon, or in enormous components being transported on the highway, I’ll never see wind turbines in the same way again.
Steven Rosenblum –
In Pigeon Falls, Jeff Elzinga captures some of the unique beauties of the Wisconsin Driftless area and weaves them into a captivating tale of individual effort and camaraderie under difficult circumstances. His depiction of this small Midwest town and the voices of folks striving to make good rings true. The story ties together issues at the top of mind for the region, from industrial farming (CAFO) to the controversies over wind energy, all within an exciting page turner. What a fantastic read. I guarantee you will never again look at a wind turbine in the same way.