Book No. 31 of 2020
This beautiful, otherworldly story has left me with a haunted feeling. On its face the book contains two separate stories of gritty American settler/adventurer/outlaw life, that meet only at the end; running deeper than the stories themselves are Obreht’s devastating themes about want and thirst. Death features prominently, both in its literal manifestations of violence and also in the form of specters, offering their own recollections of want to the characters who are able to see them.
I also was intrigued to learn about the history of the Camel Corps expedition in America, something I personally would have loved to learn in school.
Similar Reads
This book was very, very similar to Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account, which also brings an American expedition to life through the eyes of a non-Western-European protagonist. (I really appreciate authors who bring attention to the myriad of people who were part of US history.)