After six weeks of offering multiple books, genres and series to keep you occupied during a pandemic, today I am returning to my regular format of offering one book that I have read recently.

I read Téa Obreht’s The Tiger Wife and was blown away by her storytelling and the way she wove past and present together in such a wonderful way. So I was excited to get her new book, Inland.

In 1893, during a severe drought in the Arizona Territories, Nora, an intrepid homesteader, is waiting with her youngest son. She is waiting for her husband to return to their homestead with the water he promised and she is waiting for her older sons to return to help her on the farm after an explosive fight. The longer she waits the more concerned she becomes about her younger son who seems to be having visions of some large beast that is prowling around their farm. Although Nora tries to calm and discount her son’s fears, the young woman who helps on the farm also claims to see the beast and they form a united front against Nora in their belief that something evil and sinister is stalking them.

Some months earlier, Lurie a former outlaw is fortuitously offered an opportunity to join an experimental expedition which will explore the new territories. Lurie, is haunted by his past and the spirits he sees pester him, wanting something from him that he is unable to discern or offer. But an unexpected relationship that forms during the expedition helps to quell the voices he hears allowing him some respite from the spirits who have disturbed him for so long.

Told alternating between Nora and Lurie, the intersection between Lurie’s remarkable and dangerous expedition and Nora’s precarious and desperate circumstances is both suspenseful and surprising.

Based on a little-known history of the American West, Obreht’s retelling is filled with rich detail, lyrical prose and wonderfully delineated characters. Whereas in The Tiger’s Wife, Obreht reminded us of the power and truth that myths still hold for us, in Inland she looks at it from the other side and reminds us that every myth is grounded in reality and  truth.

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Out Of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to: Marian, Lauren, Keith and Sharon

Book study worthy? Yes!

Read in ebook format.