Subduction by Kristen Millares Young
In this debut novel by Cuban American journalist Kristen Millares Young, Mexican American anthropologist Claudia flees Seattle for the Olympic Peninsula Makah reservation after her husband leaves her for her younger sister. She hopes to disappear into the whaling village of Neah Bay under the cover of interviewing an elderly woman she had previously befriended, aware of her connection to all the well-meaning but flawed interlopers of Neah Bay’s past.