Halley’s Gathering
New Mexico Territory. 1910. Julia Halley, unlikely owner of the Many Springs Canyon Trading Post on the Navajo Reservation, has attracted a small but devoted circle of friends—her “gathering”—both Anglo and Navajo, all with their own stories to tell. Among them, Harry Whitaker, a Southern doctor who opened a free reservation clinic after serving in the Spanish-American War. Tóya, a Navajo woman, also a healer, who survived the Long Walk of the 1860s. Pete Pietrowski, a self-taught photographer and former Franciscan brother. Owen Rouse, a young surveyor drawn to the Southwest by a fascination with the ancient Anasazi ruins. And living deep in the canyon, Clement Yazzie, half Navajo and half Hopi, whose ruthless reputation conceals a shadowy legacy, and Johanna Yazzie, his enigmatic younger sister, mute since birth.
HALLEY’S GATHERING. A sweeping tale of a new century. When the dawn of the modern is supplanting the violence and isolation of the Old West but also endangering the Navajo way of life. Where the magnetic Julia Halley struggles against the dictates of polite society to follow her own uncompromising path. Where the controversial explorer Richard Wetherill and the celebrated photographer Edward S. Curtis are among the notable names who play a part. And where, coincidentally, the return of Halley’s Comet is just over the horizon.
“. . . a sweeping saga that is not only well-researched but also emotional and fascinating. . . . With his novel, Overstreet has created something that is on par with the 1985 Western epic Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.. . . . Readers who are looking for a new voice in the Western or general historical fiction genre will be delighted. —The US Review of Books
“. . . . a thoughtfully written and artfully structured novel, offering strong, purposeful prose and well-paced scenes. . . . The narrative never overstates, and social hierarchies, gender roles, and settler-Indigenous relations are folded into tone and interaction rather than exposition. . . . Overstreet's writing has a steady intelligence, with language and detail chosen carefully, in a unique book that rewards close attention and is well worth the time investment.” — Readers' Favorite
“HALLEY'S GATHERING is a magisterial evocation of frontier life at a time of monumental change . . . told on an enormous canvas. . . . Writers tend to devote themselves to writing either paeans or elegies to the West; Overstreet’s achievement is to have penned a novel that stands very well as both.”—Craig Jones for IndieReader
“I loved how intricate this novel was. . . . I felt like I was living in 1910. . . . If you’re looking for a detailed and captivating story that will entertain you from the first page to the very last, then look no further. Overstreet clearly has a winner with this one.”—Feathered Quill Book Reviews
“Libraries will want to highly recommend Halley's Gathering for its warm, embracive sense of place and cultures, for its ability to blend historical precedent with modern dilemmas, and, most of all, for its diversity of characters and ethnic experiences that keeps the story thoroughly engrossing and personal. . . . Halley's Gathering offers a . . . turn of the century Southwest experience that is compelling and hard to set aside.”—D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review