The Mighty Red: A Read with Jenna Pick

Set in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, this novel centers on a wedding involving several interconnected lives. Gary Geist, a young man who will inherit two farms, is determined to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive former goth who cannot read her own future. Hugo, Kismet's best friend—a gentle, red-haired, homeschooled man—also loves her and hopes to build a life with her instead. Kismet's mother, Crystal, works as a truck driver for Gary's family and experiences visions of guardian angels during her nighttime routes while worrying about the future. The novel explores themes of love, natural forces, spiritual yearning, and how uncontrollable circumstances affect ordinary lives. It examines human time, deep time, Red River time, and geological time alongside contemporary crises including climate change, resource depletion, and the 2008 economic collapse. The story portrays complicated, flawed, and contradictory characters—people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, and carry secrets. It addresses humanity's fractured relationship with the earth and love in its various forms.