The Seed Keeper
A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Big Reads Selection
Winner of the Minnesota Book Award
A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakhóta family's struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most.
Rosalie Iron Wing has grown up in the woods with her father, Ray, a former science teacher who tells her stories of plants, of the stars, of the origins of the Dakhóta people. Until, one morning, Ray doesn't return from checking his traps. Told she has no family, Rosalie is sent to live with a foster family in nearby Mankato--where the reserved, bookish teenager meets rebellious Gaby Makespeace, in a friendship that transcends the damaged legacies they've inherited.
On a winter's day many years later, Rosalie returns to her childhood home. A widow and mother, she has spent the previous two decades on her white husband's farm, finding solace in her garden even as the farm is threatened first by drought and then by a predatory chemical company. Now, grieving, Rosalie begins to confront the past, on a search for family, identity, and a community where she can finally belong. In the process, she learns what it means to be descended from women with souls of iron--women who have protected their families, their traditions, and a precious cache of seeds through generations of hardship and loss, through war and the insidious trauma of boarding schools.
Weaving together the voices of four indelible women, The Seed Keeper is a beautifully told story of reawakening, of remembering our original relationship to the seeds and, through them, to our ancestors.
Honors for The Seed Keeper:
- Winner of the Minnesota Book Award in Fiction
- A BuzzFeed "Best Book of Spring"
- A Literary Hub "Most Anticipated Book of the Year"
- A Bustle "Most Anticipated Debut Novel"
- A Bon Appetit "Best Summer Read"
- A Thrillist "Best New Book of Spring"
- A Ms. Magazine "Best Book of the Year"
- A Books Are Magic "Most Anticipated Book of the Year"
- Named a "Most Anticipated Book of the Year" by The Millions
- A Daily Beast "Best Summer Read"
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
"[The Seed Keeper] is a gorgeous and moving work of fiction with memorable characters that will stay in your heart and body for a long time." --BuzzFeed, "Brilliant Books That Explore Our Relationship with Nature" "Spend a long afternoon with this beautiful, immersive novel. It traces Rosalie Iron Wing's family history through four generations of women who have loved, lost, and fought to retain their Dakota culture and the seeds that sustain them." --Bon Appetit Magazine, "Best Summer 2021 Reads" "Like watching a garden grow from seed to harvest, this novel quietly unfolds to tell the story of several generations of Dakhóta women and the land that connects them." --The Daily Beast, "Best Summer Reads of 2021" "[The Seed Keeper] tells the story of Rosalie Iron Wing, a Dakota woman who, after surviving the foster care system to make a life of her own in the world, must confront the harsh realities--climate change, capitalism--of contemporary farming life. In looking to her past for answers Rosalie finds unexpected communion with her ancestors, the women--strong, resilient, proud--who made her who she is." --Literary Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2021" "Told through the voices of four remarkable women, this is a book about preservation . . . This beautiful generational saga challenges conventional American history, asking us to reckon with the traumas brought upon Native Americans." --Observer, "Can't-Miss Books of Spring 2021" "A powerful story recounting the attempted genocide of Indigenous people in America--and how they continue to survive." --Alma, "Best New Books of Spring 2021" "It's a moving multi-generational story about the destruction of Native American families, communities and lands--but also about reconnection, hope and the natural world . . . Wilson offers a different kind of idealism: one where community, family and the seeds can create the future we're seeking."--TODAY Show Online
"The Seed Keeper is a deeply empathetic portrayal of a character grappling with a vibrant heritage complicated by pain, loss, and
