The Mighty Red
A FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION
In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances on ordinary people's lives.
History is a flood. The mighty red . . .
In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding.
Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his.
Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He's determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.
Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughter's and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009. How much does a dress cost? A used car? A package of cinnamon rolls? Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky? These are the questions the people of the Red River Valley of the North wrestle with every day.
The Mighty Red is a novel of tender humor, disturbance, and hallucinatory mourning. It is about on-the-job pains and immeasurable satisfactions, a turbulent landscape, and eating the native weeds growing in your backyard. It is about ordinary people who dream, grow up, fall in love, struggle, endure tragedy, carry bitter secrets; men and women both complicated and contradictory, flawed and decent, lonely and hopeful. It is about a starkly beautiful prairie community whose members must cope with devastating consequences as powerful forces upend them. As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.
A new novel by Louise Erdrich is a major literary event; gorgeous and heartrending, The Mighty Red is a triumph.
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Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, is a multiaward-winning author of New York Times bestselling fiction, as well as poetry, short stories, and children's books. She has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has won the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. She has received the Library of Congress Prize in American Fiction, the prestigious PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the World Fantasy Award, and American Academy of Poets Prize, among others.
"In the hands of this master storyteller, everything is effortlessly connected. . . . Fearlessly depicting the toughest losses and darkest threats, Erdrich always finds hope." -- Oprah Daily
"[A] heart-wrenching story of how human lives are susceptible to nature's impact." -- People
"Erdrich remains one of the world's literary giants." -- Boston Globe
"Erdrich's career is one of the post distinguished in contemporary literature. The Post's Ron Charles described it as 'one powerful book after another' about the experiences of Native Americans. In 'The Mighty Red, ' she offers a characteristic tapestry of stories about people living along the Red River Valley of North Dakota." -- Washington Post
"A love triangle is at the heart of this novel, set against the backdrop of a beet farm in North Dakota during the economic meltdown of 2008-2009. It's as much about the financial crash and environmental destruction as it is about the people most impacted by and vulnerable to these devastations." -- New York Times
"[A] deft, almost winsome novel. . . . Erdrich's writing feels both effortless and wise. . . . In this tender and capacious story, love and tragedy mingle along the river and into the world." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A captivating tale of love and everyday life amid environmental upheaval and the 2008 financial crisis. . . . Erdrich excels at the slow simmer, and once again she delivers a deliciously seductive masterwork." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"While the novel touches on tragedy, it also includes scenes of sheer comedic delight. No one describes a book-group meeting better than Erdrich. Pulitzer Price and National Book Award winner Erdrich (The Sentence) yet again displays her storytelling skills." -- Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] finely woven tale of anguish and desire, crimes and healing. With irresistible characters, dramatic predicaments, crisp wit, gorgeously rendered settings, striking ecological facts, and a cosmic dimension, Erdrich's latest tale of the plains reverberates with arresting revelations." -- Booklist
"A new novel from Louise Erdrich--winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, if you didn't know--is always something to celebrate... Start clearing off space on your bedside table now." -- Literary Hub
"[A] captivating multigenerational tale set amid the 2008 financial crisis." -- Time
"The Mighty Red might just be a new American classic." -- Bookpage
"Erdrich is back with another brilliant, funny, profound story of people and place, earth and spirit." -- Marion Winik, Newsday
"[A]nother must-read from the acclaimed author...a moving story of mothers and daughters set amid the economic collapse and the devastating impacts of industrial farming." -- Town & Country
