Even at her worst, Louise Erdrich still produces some of the best stuff in print. The rambling, poorly edited The Master Butcher’s Singing Club was a great read despite its flaws. And now one of our favorite locals is back and playing to her strengths with another short, near-perfect book the likes of which put her on the map nearly twenty years ago. The thread of her lead character, Fleur Pillager, can be traced to the 1986 Love Medicine sequel The Beet Queen, where she appears from nowhere to salvage the wayward Karl Adare. Erdrich follows her thread backward now, with her usual set of startlingly different narrative voices. (Available July 1)
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