The Antelope Wife (26 page)
“Erdrich captures the passions, fears, myths, and doom of a living people, and she does so with ease that leaves the reader breathless.”
—The New Yorker
THE BEET QUEEN
Two children, Karl and Mary Adare, leap from a boxcar one chilly spring morning in 1932. Karl and Mary have been orphaned in a most peculiar way. The children have come to Argus, in the heart of rural North Dakota, to seek refuge with their aunt, who runs a butcher shop. So begins this enthralling tale, spanning some forty years and brimming with unforgettable characters: ordinary Mary, who causes a miracle; seductive, restless Karl, who lacks his sister’s gift for survival; Sita, their lovely, ambitious, disturbed cousin; Celestine James, Mary’s lifelong friend; and Celestine’s fearless, wild daughter Dot—the Beet Queen.
“[Erdrich] is a luminous writer and has produced a novel rich in movement, beauty, event. Her prose spins and sparkles.”
—Los Angeles Times
LOVE MEDICINE
Winner of a 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, Louise Erdrich’s beloved first novel is now newly revised by the author—the Definitive Edition of the book that introduced one of contemporary literature’s most innovative voices. Set on and around a North Dakota reservation over fifty years,
Love Medicine
tells of the intertwined fates of two families, the Lamartines and the Kashpaws. Their world is harsh and hazardous, full of old grievances and bad decisions, but it is illuminated by the kind of love that can leave a person crazily empty or full to overflowing with its spellbinding magic.
“The beauty of
Love Medicine
saves us from being completely devastated by its power.”
—
Toni Morrison
“A dazzling series of family portraits. . . . This novel is simply about the power of love.”
—Chicago Tribune
The Birchbark House Books (for children)
THE BIRCHBARk HOUSE
Her name is Omakayas, or Little Frog, because her first step was a hop and she lives on an island in Lake Superior. Louise Erdrich’s first book for children, a National Book Award Finalist, introduces readers to this wise and passionate seven-year-old and her family: Tallow, the woman who adopted Omakayas when she was just a baby, the only survivor of a smallpox epidemic, and siblings Pinch, Neewo, and Angeline. As the family harvests the year’s food, weathers the harsh winter, and tell stories handed down for generations, Erdrich vividly captures the language and culture of the Ojibwe in the nineteenth century. But the satisfying rhythms of their life are shattered when a visitor comes to their lodge one winter night, bringing with him an invisible enemy that will change things forever—but that will eventually lead Omakayas to discover her calling.
THE GAME OF SILENCE
On that rich early summer day, anything seemed possible.
It is 1850 and the lives of the Ojibwe have returned to a familiar rhythm: they build their birchbark houses in the summer, go to the ricing camps in the fall to harvest and feast, and move to their cozy cedar log cabins near the town of LaPointe before the first snows.
The satisfying routines of Omakayas’s days are interrupted by a surprise visit from a group of desperate and mysterious people. From them, she learns that the
chimookomanag
, or white people, want Omakayas and her people to leave their island and move farther west. That day, Omakayas realizes that something so valuable, so important that she never knew she had it in the first place, could be in danger. Her home. Her way of life.
Winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction,
The Game of Silence
continues Louise Erdrich’s celebrated series, which began with
The Birchbark House
, a National Book Award nominee.
THE PORCUPINE YEAR
Here follows the story of a most extraordinary year in the life of an Ojibwe family and of a girl named “Omakayas,” or Little Frog, who lived a year of flight and adventure, pain and joy, in 1852.
When Omakayas is twelve winters old, she and her family set off on a harrowing journey. In search of a new home, they travel westward from the shores of Lake Superior by canoe, along the rivers of northern Minnesota. While the family has prepared well, unexpected danger, enemies, and hardships will push them to the brink of survival. Omakayas continues to learn from the land and the spirits around her, and she discovers that no matter where she is, or how she is living, there is only one thing she needs to carry her through.
Richly imagined, full of laughter and sorrow,
The Porcupine Year
, an ALA Notable Book, continues Louise Erdrich’s celebrated series, which began with
The Birchbark House
, a National Book Award Nominee, and continued with
The Game of Silence
, winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.
Praise for Louise Erdrich’s
Birchbark House Books
“Erdrich is a talented storyteller. She has created a world, fictional but real: absorbing, funny, serious, and convincingly human.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Readers will welcome the return of richly drawn characters.”
—Booklist
(starred review)
“Readers who loved Omakayas and her family in
The Birchbark House
have ample reason to rejoice in this beautifully constructed sequel. . . . Hard not to hope for what comes next for this radiant nine-year-old.”
—Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
“This meticulously researched novel offers an even balance of joyful and sorrowful moments while conveying a perspective of America’s past that is rarely found in history books.”
—Publishers Weekly
NOVELS
Love Medicine
The Beet Queen
Tracks
The Crown of Columbus (with Michael Dorris)
The Bingo Palace
Tales of Burning Love
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse
Four Souls
The Master Butchers Singing Club
The Painted Drum
The Plague of Doves
Shadow Tag
The Round House
SHORT STORIES
The Red Convertible
POETRY
Jacklight
Baptism of Desire
Original Fire
FOR CHILDREN
Grandmother’s Pigeon
The Range Eternal
The Birchbark House
The Game of Silence
The Porcupine Year
Chickadee
NONFICTION
The Blue Jay’s Dance
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country
“The Ojibwe Week” was first published in
Granta
115, published in Summer 2011.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
THE ANTELOPE WIFE
. Copyright © 1998, 2012 by Louise Erdrich. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-06-176796-8
Epub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062213167
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OV/RRD
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