True North

Serious issues such as Native land rights and self-government, racism and environmentalism are among the topics Kafka tackles in her atmospheric, tightly wrought debut novel. Bailey Lockhart is a bush pilot in Alaska--""Places other people could not reach. She wanted that""--where she has lived on her own since she fled Maine five years earlier in the wake of tragedy. She is the only non-Native in the area, which is run by the Native American Ingalik tribe. The closest village to Bailey's camp is 80 miles down river. It is governed by Kash, ""the Yukon's most eligible bachelor since his wife's death,"" who is also a Dartmouth-educated Ingalik activist and attracted to Bailey. Although she tries to disguise it, she too is drawn to Kash, but a secret in her past keeps her from letting anyone get too close. When Zach, a furniture builder, and Alpha, an elementary school teacher, come to Alaska from urban Maine on the pretext of a wilderness adventure (they are really searching for gold), they hire Bailey to pilot them into a remote area. The outsiders act as the catalyst for violence and emotional disclosure. The villagers' dislike of non-Natives who seem to threaten the indigenous way of life comes to a boil whena lecherous and violent drunk named Match expresses his aggressive resentment in increasingly dangerous ways. The suspense culminates in an action-packed extended scene featuring the hallmarks of prime time TV--a death by bear mauling, a surprise discovery and one romantic consummation. Kafka, an emergency wilderness medical technician, sometimes overwrites the drama, but she excels in integrating wilderness lore, descriptions of the natural landscape and insight into the harsh lives of people who brave the territory. (Mar.) FYI: The author is a direct descendant of Franz Kafka.