Bunyan and Henry; Or, the Beautiful Destiny A Novel

Paul Bunyan-legendary larger-than-life American lumberjack-is a man down on his luck. With a load of family debts on his broad back, he ekes out a miserable miner's life in Lump Town, a bleak hamlet controlled by famed industrialist El Boffo. When Bunyan's wife Lucette falls ill with a disease caused by the toxic mineral Lump, he embarks on a quest to save her. His only guide: the Chilali-a mysterious creature who speaks only in questions.
Bunyan's path leads to The Windy City-and to John Henry. Henry is not yet the "steel-drivin'" man known to folklore, but a fugitive on the run from a rigged, racist prison system. As Bunyan and Henry strive to reunite with the families they love, they must work together to solve riddles, forge weapons, brawl with a behemoth, and confront at every turn the relentless, duplicitous El Boffo.
A richly imaginative reinvention of myth, Bunyan and Henry is at once a timeless quest, a fresh origin story, and an urgent modern fable that wrestles with the two sides of the American dream-its wild idealism and cruel underbelly-to inspire the awakening of the folk hero in us all.