The threat of the encroaching men, and particularly the sexual violence they will likely bring with them, looms heavy over much of the novel, infusing even the most quotidian scenes of vegetable gathering and water collecting with a disturbing and ominous air. This is a grim and merciless world with no place for sentiment, a fact made abundantly clear by the scene in which Lynn's mother lies bloody and dying and instructs Lynn in how to properly kill a coyote-nary a tear is shed, nor a goodbye uttered. When Lynn's mother is killed and Lynn injured in a coyote attack, Lynn is forced to rely on the help of her nearest neighbors, but more trouble is heading her way as a group of violent men sets their sights on Lynn and her pond. The freestanding drink also occasionally attracts the wrong kind of attention from wandering strangers and marauding animals, all of whom are dealt with by a rifle shot to the heart. Water is scarce in Lynn's world, so she has spent much of her sixteen years closely guarding the freshwater pond near her cabin home in the wilderness.
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