The Buick on Lost Ox Lake

About this book

Halvard, Minnesota, winter 2019. Every year the Lions put a junk car on Lost Ox Lake and the county bets on the minute it falls through. This year the pot could save the town's dying volunteer ambulance, and this year the car is a dented maroon 1984 Buick, donated by Curtis Brekke after his father's funeral. In 1987 that Buick killed sixteen-year-old Annie Sundquist on County Road 9, and Halvard has agreed for thirty-two years not to talk about it. Annie's sister Marit sells the tickets. Jody, a snowplough driver and one of the last four ambulance volunteers, takes Curtis to bed. Gene, the old science teacher who times the contest, is losing words and days. As record snow buries the car and the tickets pile up, the town has to decide how long it can keep looking at it and not say anything.