Hidden Roots

Set in the small mill town of Sparta in upstate New York, the novel is narrated by eleven-year-old Howard "Sonny" Camp, a quiet, watchful boy living with his mother, Martha, and his father, Jake, a paper mill worker prone to fits of rage. Howard has been trained since early childhood to sleep lightly so he cannot be "crept up on," a warning Martha repeats but never explains. She rarely visits Howard's school, sometimes because her face is bruised from Jake's violence, though she attributes her injuries to clumsiness. Howard senses his father loves him, but Jake's anger makes home unsafe.

Howard's social life is equally difficult. In third grade, a bigger boy named Verney Wooley taunts him about his mother and tries to start a fight. When Howard refuses and walks away, the other children chant "Howard's a coward," cementing his reputation as a loner.

The present action begins one August morning when Martha wakes Howard before dawn. Uncle Louis, a family friend and local hunter, is coming to take them to see the deer. Martha confirms Jake has already left for the mill, establishing that these outings must be kept secret. Louis is said to be French-Canadian and once worked as a hired man for Martha's late parents. He has filled a grandparent-like role in Howard's life, though Jake forbids him from spending unsupervised time with Howard, fearing Louis will fill the boy with "foolish notions."

Another forbidden subject is the Second World War. When Howard asks Jake whether he was a war hero, Jake reacts with fury. Martha later explains that Jake enlisted in the Marines but suffered a severe concussion in a motorcycle accident the day before shipping out and received a medical discharge. His unit left without him, and half the men died in Normandy. Jake's shame became yet another topic never to be mentioned.

Louis arrives before dawn and drives Howard and Martha east toward Vermont. Near Arlington, he stops the car on a hillside where a large herd of deer grazes close enough to touch. Louis and Howard walk hand in hand among the deer, whispering greetings. Not one deer runs until a passing car startles the herd into flight. On the drive home, Louis teaches Howard that deer survive by hiding, sometimes "in plain sight," and that people can do the same.

When they arrive home, Jake is on the front steps, sent home early and furious. Martha starts to say "He's my..." but catches herself. Jake raises his hand to strike. Howard steps between his parents, but Louis moves with startling speed and seizes Jake's wrist. Placing his other hand on Jake's chest, Louis says: "We are who we are. It's you just as much as it is Martha or Sonny or me. You can't change that no more than you can change your own heartbeat." Jake begs Louis to let go. Louis releases him, and Jake drives away. For the rest of August, Jake does not hit anyone or raise his voice.

As autumn arrives, Louis visits more frequently while Jake works double shifts. He teaches Howard Indigenous traditions, taking him to Potash Mountain before dawn to build a fire, offer tobacco, and greet the sunrise. When Howard asks if it is all right to act "like Indians," Louis replies, "Long as no one sees us." He explains that some local families stopped identifying as Indian because it brought persecution. Jake takes Howard to see the Hudson River below the paper plant, where the water runs in unnatural colors from chemical waste. Jake says the plant is poisoning the river: "They do it because they can."

At school, Howard discovers the library and meets Mrs. Edith Rosen, the new librarian, a warm, perceptive woman who recognizes his love of reading and introduces him to Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. Verney Wooley unexpectedly invites Howard to play basketball, marking a turning point in Howard's social life.

In October, sirens sound at the mill. A new worker gets his shirtsleeve caught in Number Three, a dangerous paper-making machine. Jake flies across the floor with a knife, cuts the worker free, and pushes him to safety, but Jake's own right hand is caught. He loses a finger and part of another; his hand and arm are badly damaged. In the hospital, Jake breaks down, saying he deserved to lose that hand: It is the same hand he used to hit his wife and son.

The family waits for a settlement check from the mill, but bureaucratic delays prevent its arrival. Martha takes a job at a distant store while Louis provides firewood and venison. Jake insists Louis "shouldn't come around so much" because "people will notice." Martha pushes back, telling Jake that everyone already knows. Jake insists the only way Howard can have a better life is "if he leaves all of that behind. All of it!" But both parents fall silent when they notice Howard listening.

With his parents often absent, Louis effectively lives at the house. He and Howard listen to Straight Arrow, a radio show about an Indian who disguises himself as white but reclaims his identity to fight for justice. When Howard returns an overdue library book, Louis accompanies him and notices a photograph on Mrs. Rosen's desk. She explains that her parents, who died in a Nazi concentration camp, sent her to England in secret to save her life. Louis, eyes moist, says that sometimes parents must do the hardest things for their children.

Back at the house, Louis tells Howard that Martha has agreed it is his decision to reveal the truth. He produces a yellowed 1932 Vermont sterilization certificate for his wife, Sophia Lester. Issued under the state's sterilization law, the document declares Sophie "feeble-minded" and authorizes a surgical procedure to prevent her from having children. Louis explains that Sophie was sharp and capable; the doctors sterilized her because she was Indian. He then reveals that he is not Howard's uncle but his grandfather. Martha is his daughter. The Lesters are not French-Canadian; they are Abenaki and Mohican, Indigenous peoples of the Northeast, with some French ancestry. Jake's family also has Indian heritage, which Jake hid to protect Howard from discrimination.

Jake appears in the doorway holding the long-awaited settlement check, having overheard everything. His face shows no anger, only exhaustion. He confirms the truth. Louis tells the full story: In Vermont, the Abenaki were labeled "gypsies" or "pirates." When the state sent doctors to offer free clinics, Louis and Sophie went willingly, hoping for help after losing their first child to influenza. Instead, both were sterilized without true consent. Sophie grew sick and died. The authorities also removed children from families and institutionalized adults. To save young Martha, Louis turned to the Henrys, a white couple who agreed to raise her as their own. He and Martha walked through the woods from Vermont for a week, and the Henrys took Louis on as a hired man so he could remain near his daughter.

Louis tells Jake he has always been proud of him, except for the anger. He thumps Jake's chest: "Jake Camp, you let go of that shame of yours and all that anger that has gone with it." Jake presses Louis's hand against his chest with both hands, the injured one and the sound one, and whispers, "God as my witness." Howard calls him "Grampa Louis" for the first time and embraces him. Jake wraps both arms around them. Martha walks in, drops her packages, and folds her arms around all three. They stand together for a long time, "swaying just as trees do that are rooted deep."