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Book Reviewed by:The New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger's Wife returns with a stunning tale of perseverance - an epic journey across an unforgettable landscape of magic and myth.
In the lawless, drought-ridden lands of the Arizona Territory in 1893, two extraordinary lives collide. 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.
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. The way in which Nora's and Lurie's stories intertwine is the surprise and suspense of this brilliant novel.
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.
Attempting to encapsulate Inland's many sprawling story-tendrils within a neat synopsis is to do this bewitching novel a great disservice. We may only follow two central protagonists, but from the get-go Obreht gives voice to a legion of lives and spirits that put flesh on the bones of a majestic, untamed American West unburdened by stale cowboy-and-Indian tropes. Episode after suspenseful episode fizzes with life thanks to shimmering prose and rippling turns of phrase...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Dean Muscat).
A key section of Téa Obreht's novel Inland takes place among the Camel Corps, a real-life mid-19th-century experiment conducted by the United States Army attempting to introduce camels as beasts of burden in the Southwestern territories.
This seemingly madcap idea originated when the army found they needed to vastly improve transportation in the arid, barren Southwest. The inhospitable terrain was not dissimilar to the great deserts of Egypt, and several high officials recommended that the War Department introduce camels to the army due to their strength, endurance and capacity to travel great lengths with minimal need for food, water and rest. In 1848, Mexican-American War veteran Major Henry C. Wayne put forward an official ...
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