Louise Erdrich
Dark Realities and Glimmering Hopes in the Red River Valley
Note: Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.
Can you see the shape of your soul in the everchanging clouds? Your personal salvation in the giant expanse of sky?
For the ensemble cast of characters that make up the prairie community at the heart of The Mighty Red, existential questions are constantly close to the surface. In her newest novel, author Louise Erdrich immerses readers in the Red River Valley of the North and the complicated lives of its inhabitants. Argus, North Dakota is a town framed by the 2008 economic crisis, the consequences of climate change, and the dynamics of small-town drama. Thrown into motion by a chaotic teen love triangle and fretting about the future, Erdrich’s characters navigate impulsive choices, bitter secrets, and deeply rooted ties to their land and to each other.
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The Red River Valley is home to dark realities and glimmering hopes, twisting together like winding late-night drives along dimly lit roads. As resources dwindle and viewpoints shift, love and life lurch forward in splendor, catastrophe, and absurdity. Bonds in the community are born and bolstered, disturbed and questioned, broken and mended. Laced with tender humor and humanity in the midst of devastating environmental circumstances, The Mighty Red paints a layered landscape of ordinary people surviving fraught times.
Louise Erdrich is an award-winning Native American author and poet whose writing spans novels, short stories, non-fiction, and children’s books. Her previously published works include The Plague of Doves, The Round House, and The Night Watchman. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the owner of the Native-focused independent teaching bookstore Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle.