Harvesting Ashwood: Minnesota 2037

Ashwood #2

by Cynthia Kraack

Ten years after the second great depression, Americans struggle to recover from the country’s recovery activities in Harvesting Ashwood: Minnesota 2037, the third speculative fiction novel by prize-winning author Cynthia Kraack. As colossal-size government, necessary during the chaos of international financial collapse, is reluctant to downsize its power and activities as business re-asserts its claim to sharing direction of the U.S. economy. How do quasi-governmental units established to feed, shelter and educate citizens navigate the developing power struggle of an ever-changing order? Harvesting Ashwood: Minnesota 2037 builds on the tradition of Ashwood by challenging today’s status quo within the twists and turns of a spellbinding thriller.

Kraack explores social issues from today’s culture in a different future. From the basic right of people to daily food to the complex relationship the United States has with its children, the Ashwood series pushes readers to question the trade-offs made by politicians under the pressure of military expansion or international diplomacy.

Harvesting Ashwood: Minnesota 2037 follows Anne Hartford, owner and general manager of a former government agricultural installation named Ashwood, through challenges that threaten the continued profitability of raising crops for both the public and private markets, the illogical infringement of the military on her operation, and policy that could destroy her family. Trained to be an elementary teacher in the early twenty-first century, she creates a safe haven for many children sucked into government-assigned training even while worrying about a tenuous hold on her own sons and daughter.

Genres: Science Fiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Cynthia Kraack is a Midwest author of fiction, nonfiction, and short stories. 40 Thieves on Saipan, a a nonfiction narrative military history book, was co-written with Joseph Tachovsky and released in June 2020. It is a recommended selection on the Military History Book Club.

The High Cost of Flowers won two 2014 Midwest Book Awards taking first in Literary Fiction as well as Contemporary Fiction. Her debut work, Minnesota Cold, won the 2009 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Fiction. She also wrote the Ashwood trilogy, a speculative fiction family saga. Glimmer Train, Big Muddy Literary Journal and the Hal Prize competition have recognized her short stories. She has a MFA from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Program in Creative Writing, a Masters in Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota and Bachelors in Journalism from Marquette University. She is a founding board member of Write On, Door County, a Wisconsin writing center.

Reviews

[Danny Unger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think after reading the first book, you'll be happy to know there's a second. Expanding on the first, we get deeper into the story. I appreciate the struggle, active and below the surface, to balance between matriarchy and patriarchy.

[Pamela Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great sequel to Ashwood. Continued the high suspense.

[Sally Hannoush · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, I couldn't get past 15% of this book. It may have gotten better but I never made it that far.