A young shepherd tending sheep for the first time in the fields outside of Bethlehem is blessed to witness the birth of Jesus.

"He'd been a good hand on the ranches he'd worked, and while he was out on the ranches, he'd stayed out of trouble. It was when he went to town and got drunk that he got into trouble. He was sitting in his parole officer's outer office weighing out his options when he was called into the officer's office. 'Had any luck finding a job?' asked the parole officer. 'Nope,' answered the ex-con. 'What kind of work are you looking for?' 'Anything on a ranch...

"In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh's most exciting leap yet Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life's few consolations for Marek...

"This book contributes to a wider understanding of the significance of the Basque immigration in the western sheep industry with a historically refreshed perspective. It contributes to the existing new historiography of the American West by looking more critically at the Basque immigrant experience in the open-range sheep industry of Nevada. It deconstructs the essentialist view that attributed to Basques special sheepherding skills by exploring this...