For more than three decades, bestselling author Louise Erdrich has
enthralled readers with dazzling novels that paint an evocative
portrait of Native American life. From her dazzling first novel, Love
Medicine, to the National Book Award-winning The Round House,
Erdrich’s lyrical skill and emotional assurance have earned her a
place alongside William Faulkner and Willa Cather as an author deeply
rooted in the American landscape.
In Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country, Erdrich takes us on an
illuminating tour through the terrain her ancestors have inhabited
for centuries: the lakes and islands of southern Ontario. Summoning
to life the Ojibwe's sacred spirits and songs, their language and
sorrows, she considers the many ways in which her tribe—whose name
derives from the word ozhibii'ige, "to write"—have
influenced her. Her journey links ancient stone paintings with a
magical island where a bookish recluse built an extraordinary
library, and she reveals how both have transformed her.
A blend of history, mythology, and memoir, Books and Islands in
Ojibwe Country is an enchanting meditation on modern life,
natural splendor, and the ancient spirituality and creativity of
Erdrich's native homeland—a long, elemental tradition of
storytelling that is in her blood.