Winter in the Blood is the first novel of James Welch. The Native American author won several national literary awards for his later novel Fools Crow

Fools Crow

Fools Crow is a novel written by author James Welch. Set in Montana shortly after the Civil War, this novel tells of Fools Crow, a young Blackfoot Indian on the verge of manhood, and his tribe, known as the Lone Eaters. The invasion of white society threatens to change their traditional way of...

, as well as receiving positive reviews for Indian Lawyer and The Death of Jim Loney. Winter in the Blood was published in 1974 by Harper & Row. It was later issued as a paperback by Penguin

Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

 Paperback.

Synopsis

The novel, set in contemporary times, features a self-destructive narrator undergoing an identity crisis. He lives in a Native American reservation in Montana. His tribe and his culture are clashing with a nearby white settlement and misguided legislation. He moves through his days in a mental haze and tries to console himself with sexual encounters.

He attempts to deal with the memories of his father found dead in a snowdrift and of his brother, who died at the age of fourteen.

Location

The novel takes place on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation

The Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering 1,014.064 sq mi , and is located in north central Montana. This includes the main portion of their homeland, as well as off-reservation trust land. It is shared by two Native American tribes, the...

 and along the Hi-Line of Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. This is where Welch lived as a child.

Film

Winter in the Blood was adapted as a screenplay and will be made into a feature film in 2011 by the brothers Andrew and Alex Smith, and the screenwriter Ken White. The Smith brothers also wrote The Slaughter Rule (2002) and Career Opportunities in Poetry (2008). Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

-based band, Heartless Bastards

Heartless Bastards

Heartless Bastards is a garage rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2003. They are often compared to fellow Ohioans and Fat Possum labelmates The Black Keys.- History :...

will provide the film's soundtrack.