"The stories stand the test of time; blackly humorous, plainspoken, and earthy."—Star Tribune
"In a style austere, direct, and unapologetic, Northrup reveals his own personal trials and the struggles of his community in fictional sketches and poetic anecdotes."—Publishers Weekly
In Dirty Copper, Jim Northrup returns to the story of Luke Warmwater, an Anishinaabe man who returns to the Reservation after serving in Vietnam. This prequel to Northrup's classic novel Walking the Rez Road deals with the emotions and cultural changes Warmwater struggles with immediately following his service in Vietnam. He becomes a deputy sheriff on the Rez, fighting crime and racism, and is bothered by flashbacks of the war, which are intense at first but gradually become less frequent as time goes on.