When Daniel Howitt arrives in the remote hills of southern Missouri, the people of Mutton Hollow know almost nothing about him. Educated, mysterious, and clearly far removed from the rugged mountain life around him, Howitt has come searching for something the world he left behind could never give him. Before long, the stranger becomes simply Dad Howitt—the Shepherd. But beneath his quiet wisdom lies a past intimately connected to the people who have taken him in…and a truth that cannot remain buried forever.

Around him unfolds the story of a community caught between the world it has always known and the one beginning to encroach upon it. There is Sammy Lane, fiercely intelligent and determined to become more than others expect of her; Young Matt, whose strength is matched by a loyalty he rarely knows how to put into words; and a cast of Ozark men and women shaped by love, pride, violence, loss, and the unforgiving beauty of the hills themselves. As old grievances collide with new ambitions, Howitt must finally confront the tragedy that brought him to the mountains—and discover whether forgiveness can reach a man who has spent years believing some things can never be forgiven.

First published by Harold Bell Wright in 1907, The Shepherd of the Hills became one of the earliest American novels to sell more than a million copies and helped transform the Ozarks—and eventually Branson, Missouri—into a destination for generations of readers. Sevastian Winters now retells this remarkable American story for a modern audience, preserving its characters, its setting, its conflicts, and its heart while bringing a contemporary pace and storytelling style to Wright’s classic. This is a story about becoming, belonging, grief, redemption, and the strange grace of finding your way home in a place you never expected to call your own.

The hills remember everything. But they may also teach a man how to let it go.