Now available in paperback!
New reading group guide available now, too.

THE TURTLE CATCHER
by Nicole Helget

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
$13.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-0-547-24800-4
April 2010

Houghton Mifflin / Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com
ISBN  9780618753123
$24.00 Hardcover
Published February 20, 2009
Fiction set in rural Minnesota during WWI

“THE TURTLE CATCHER is set in a rural Minnesota community of German immigrants during the first part of the last century. Against the backdrop of World War I, and the conflicted loyalties of the community’s residents, Nicole Helget tells the story of isolated Liesel Richter and her friendship with Lester Sutter, a man impaired by his father’s beatings. The story is imaginative, beautifully written, and mysterious. Helget’s writing has been compared to that of Louise Erdrich and Leif Enger. Read the book to discover why!”
– Sally Wizik Wills, Sister Wolf Books, Dorset, MN

 Reading Group Guide - available now!  

 MBA Bookseller Information

 For more information about this book, please contact your Houghton Mifflin Harcourt rep or Fujii Associates rep.  If you would like to inquire about publicity and events for author Nicole Helget, please contact Houghton Mifflin:  Taryn Roeder, Assistant Director of Publicity, 617.351.3818, taryn.roeder@hmhpub.com. For marketing questions, contact Carla Gray, Associate Director of Marketing, 617-351-3742, carla.gray@hmhpub.com.

MBA Booksellers: earn up to $75 in rebates for promoting this book!  See the marketing information and rebate form below.

Downloads

• Paperback flyer (PDF)
• Paperback book photo (JPG)
• Reading Group Guide (PDF) — NEW!
• Full color sign/flyer (PDF in a ZIP file)
• Author Q&A (PDF)
• Meet the characters in the book (PDF)
• Author photo (JPG)
• Book photo (JPG)
• Midwest Connections Generic Display Materials

About the Book

“I loved Nicole Helget’s The Turtle Catcher.  So many stories cover happy times growing up on a farm in poverty.  This beautifully written story, however, captures the gritty, oppressive life on a farm in hard times.  The story follows two families in a German immigrant community in Minnesota during and after World War I. The beginning will blow you away!  Best of luck to Nicole on another terrific book!”
- Susie Fruncillo, Lake Country Booksellers, White Bear Lake, MN

A stand-out fiction debut by a prize-winning young writer.

The Summer of Ordinary Ways, Nicole Helget’s fierce and lyrical memoir of growing up on a Minnesota dairy farm, was a favorite of critics and booksellers and received widespread acclaim. People magazine hailed the young author’s ability to “take the messiest of lives and fashion something beautiful.”

Here in her first novel, Helget turns her extraordinary sensibility to a haunting love story with a heinous crime at its core. In a rural Minnesota town of German immigrants in the tumultuous days of World War I, The Turtle Catcher brings together two misfits from warring clans. Liesel, the one girl in the upstanding family of Richter boys, harbors a secret about her body that thwarts all hope for a normal life.  Her closest friend is Lester, the “slow” boy in the raffish Sutter family, a gentle, kind soul who spends his days trapping turtles in the lake. Yearning for human touch in the wake of her parents’ deaths, Liesel turns to her only friend-leading her brother, just returned from the war, to an act that will haunt not only both families but the entire town.

Helget’s novel is a story of loyalty and betrayal that, like her earlier book, proves her uncommon understanding of the natural world and human frailties. Both moving and heartfelt, The Turtle Catcher confirms this young writer’s exceptional talent.

NICOLE HELGET was born in 1976 and grew up on a farm in southern Minnesota, a childhood and place she drew on in the writing of her memoir, The Summer of Ordinary Ways. She received her BA and an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She now lives with her family in Mankato, Minnesota. NPR’s Scott Simon awarded The Turtle Catcher the Tamarack Prize from Minnesota Monthly based on the novel’s first chapter.

Midwest Connections Marketing Plans

• $75 in REBATES from MBA for display photos, ads, features in your newsletters, e-newsletters, and on your store website – print out the REBATE FORM above and follow instructions
• Contact the publisher to inquire about bookstore events, book club or reading group appearances, and/or phoners with the author.
• Banner ads for the book on the MBA website
• Flyer/sign PDF file and other materials provided by the publisher
• Reading copies of THE TURTLE CATCHER available from Houghton Mifflin and MBA – contact the MBA office if you need a book.
• Print ad you can run in your local paper – earn a rebate from MBA for your ad!
• Midwest Connections stickers, shelf-talkers, signs, bookmarks for in-store displays – earn a display rebate, too