The Good Oak

Growing up is never easy, but Matt Echbar seems to be having a particularly difficult time. His widowed father is too busy for him, and his grandfather — an unschooled Basque shepherd — is a constant embarrassment to Matt's all-American lifestyle.

And when a family tragedy occurs on his 13th birthday, things only get worse.

His grandfather hijacks Matt into helping him steal a flock of sheep to drive to a secret camp high in the Arizona Mountains. And so Matt's sometimes hilarious and often profound adventure as an apprentice sheepherder begins. 

Now Matt must not only deal with the precarious borderlands between childhood and manhood, but also those of his familiar American identity and a Basque heritage that he’s never embraced.

Etchart (The Good Oak) deftly captures the pastoral setting, elegantly contrasting this with the family suffering that Matt uncovers. — Publishers Weekly