[Hungry Hills] tells of the efforts of the young Snit Mandolin to find his roots and re-establish a home in the barren farmlands of northern Alberta, to which he returns after an absence of several years. The period covered is one hot, dry summer during which the protagonist discovers his incestuous origins and learns a kind of stoical integrity from his aunt, the one figure who seems to have survived the tortures of life in the hills with any dignity…. [The] novel shows Ryga's interest in the lives of the poor and oppressed as well as his preoccupation with problems of structure. One of the interesting features of Ryga's development as a writer has been his search for a form that would give him the flexibility he needs as an artist. His progress after the comparatively traditional realism of Indian and Hungry Hills has been in the direction...