Drum Dance is a literary-historical
novel for teens through adults, filled with
adventure, paranormal intrigue, and danger in
Canada's Central Arctic, where Sir John Franklin
and his crew froze to death searching for the
Northwest Passage. In the late 1930s, 17-year-old
David Jansson agrees to spend two years at an
isolated fur-trading post with his estranged
father, Per, manager for the Hudson's Bay Company,
and almost lives to regret it. David hasn't seen
his dad for five years, and the hot-tempered man
he finds is not the gentle father he
remembers—he has become a domineering,
abusive alcoholic.
David soon rethinks his decision to stay the full
two years. But hoping to find the loving parent
inside the drunken man, he tries to stick it out
and follow Per's strict orders: absolutely no
contact with the beautiful half-blood girl,
Nipesha, nor the intimidating shaman, Naigo, who
ignores Inuit tradition and chooses the white
youth for his apprentice—a creepy old man
who appears in David's room in the middle of the
night, then vanishes before his eyes. David's
life becomes hell as he deals with Per's
alcoholism, Nipesha's seductive flirting, his ESP,
and the unforgiving climate of a desolate island.
To escape an intolerable situation in a land
where escape is nearly impossible, David risks
his life by underestimating the weather—and
his own heart—when he ignores a basic truth:
The Arctic seldom gives a
man a second chance.
"Birch bark canoes were
made for rivers and lakes," Per said, "not
the frigid waters of the Arctic. Fall out of this,
you'll freeze before you drown!"
Drum Dance was chosen as a quarter-finalist in
the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.
"Booksellers,
librarians and readers are always saying they're
looking for something original to read. Well,
they need look no further than Drum
Dance, a refreshing YA
novel with an accomplished voice and a strong
sense of place." ~ Lauren
Baratz-Logsted,
author of The Twin's
Daughter andThe
Education of Bet.
