The Hearts of Men
The Hearts of Men is an evocative, decades-spanning look at intertwining friendships and families that explores the slippery definitions of fidelity, morality, and trust—all played out against a backdrop of a venerable Boy Scout camp in the Wisconsin woods. It begins at Camp Chippewa in 1962. Thirteen-year-old Nelson Doughty, the camp bugler, is at once an overachiever and social outcast. This summer, however, launches a tenuous friendship with a popular boy named Jonathan. Years later, Nelson—irrevocably scarred from the Vietnam War—has become Scoutmaster of Camp Chippewa. Jonathan, meanwhile, has married, divorced, and taken over his father’s highly successful trucking business. When something unthinkable involving Jonathan’s teenage grandson and daughter-in- law happens at the camp, its aftermath test the depths—and the limits—of Nelson's selflessness and bravery. The Hearts of Men is Butler’s astute exploration of what it means to be a good person and whether we have to be intrinsically good or if it’s possible to get there by trying, failing, and trying again.
Nickolas Butler
Nickolas Butler was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and educated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. He is the author of six books, most recently The Forty Year Kiss, and his writing has been praised by The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and many others. He lives on sixteen acres of land in rural Wisconsin adjacent to a buffalo farm. He is married and has two children. Find him online at https://nickolasbutler.com/