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Inland

The New York Times bestseller from the award-winning author of The Tiger's Wife

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Inland

By: Téa Obreht
Narrated by: Anna Chlumsky, Edoardo Ballerini, Euan Morton
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Summary

 A VANITY FAIR, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND LIT HUB 'MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2019'

'A TREMENDOUSLY TALENTED WRITER' Ann Patchett

NORA is an unflinching frontierswoman awaiting the return of the men in her life - her husband who has gone in search of water for the parched household, and her elder sons who have vanished after an explosive argument. Nora is biding her time with her youngest son, who is convinced that a mysterious beast is stalking the land around their home, and her husband's seventeen-year-old cousin, who communes with spirits.

LURIE is a former outlaw and a man haunted by ghosts. He sees lost souls who want something from him, and he finds reprieve from their longing in an unexpected relationship that inspires a momentous expedition across the West.

Mythical, lyrical, and sweeping in scope, Inland is grounded in true but little-known history. It showcases all of Téa Obreht's talents as a writer, as she subverts and reimagines the myths of the American West, making them entirely - and unforgettably - her own.

PRAISE FOR THE TIGER'S WIFE
'The most thrilling discovery in years' Colum McCann
'Assured, eloquent and not easily forgotten' Independent on Sunday
'A poignant, seductive novel' Observer
'One of the most extraordinary debuts of recent memory' Vogue

(p) Penguin Random House Audio Ltd 2019©2017 Téa Obreht Coming of Age Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Horror Literary Fiction Magic Magical Realism Scary Haunted Old West Wild West
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Critic reviews

A tremendously talented writer
Magnificent . . . brings to mind similar effects in, say, Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or Toni Morrison's Beloved.
This free-ranging tale of an American frontierswoman should have been on the Booker longlist... I'm already looking forward to whatever Obreht writes next. (Claire Lowdon)
This exquisite frontier tale from the author of The Tiger's Wife is a timely exploration of the darkness beneath the American dream ... The historical detail is immaculate, the landscape exquisitely drawn; the prose is hard, muscular, more convincingly Cormac McCarthy than McCarthy himself ... [The] paranormal element reminds us strongly of George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo ... Inland also feels of a piece with another recent novel, Sarah Perry's Melmoth, a brilliantly eerie gothic tale in which the horrors of history are condensed into a single ghostly figure (Alex Preston)
[Obreht] has used the little-known existence of the Camel Corps as the inspiration for Inland, her propulsive second novel ... Infectious storytelling ... Obreht is as engrossing with her depiction of the colourful and disparate encounters experienced by Lurie and Burke as she is on the claustrophobia of small-town rivalries (Catherine Taylor)
It's a voyage of hilarious and harrowing adventures, told in the irresistible voice of a restless, superstitious man determined to live right but tormented by his past. At times, it feels as though Obreht has managed to track down Huck Finn years after he lit out for the Territory and found him riding a camel. She has such a perfectly tuned ear for the simple poetry of Lurie's vision... Sip slowly, make it last. (Ron Charles)
Set against a backdrop of hardship and saturated with magic and myth, this ambitious novel is a modern masterpiece, culminating in an unforgettable ending (Rosie Hopegood)
"Obreht is the kind of writer who can forever change the way you think about a thing, just through her powers of description . . . Inland is an ambitious and beautiful work about many things: immigration, the afterlife, responsibility, guilt, marriage, parenthood, revenge, all the roads and waterways that led to America. Miraculously, it's also a page-turner and a mystery, as well as a love letter to a camel, and, like a camel, improbable and splendid, something to happily puzzle over at first and take your breath away at the end. (Elizabeth McCracken)
All stars
Most relevant
it may take me a while to digest this novel. it is unlike anything that I have read before. a wide streak of magical realism and evocative setting

Powerful tale

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I really wanted to like this; it's beautifully written and exquisitely performed but, even with the help of a professional review, I had no idea what was going on beyond two very long, seemingly independent diary entries. These are stories in parallel; one evidently taking place over one day in a severe drought, the other over many years, and both in a fictional US state. There is magical realism although it can be hard to spot - or it was for me because in fairness I found it difficult to maintain my focus or interest. The only character I had any sympathy with was a camel, the rest were just story fodder. If it were a film it would be art house and the cinematography would be perfect but you might be hard pressed to find a satisfactory payoff for your viewing efforts. Admittedly, sometimes it's less the destination, more the journey that makes fiction worthwhile and I can see this might appeal to some so I'll hold off from describing a key element that most irritated me. It won the New York Times Best Seller award in 2019 so it obviously has something going for it, I just didn't find it. C'est la vie!

Winner NYT best seller 2019 but not for me

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