A story which starts in Germany in the aftermath of the first world war. Fidelis returns to his village and, out of a sense of duty to his best friend who was killed in the war, marries his friend's pregnant widow. They leave Germany for the US and start a successful business. But all is not well at home and the arrival of Delphine who turns their lives upside down.

RELEASE NOTES:

I took the book home from the BC Meeting in the Talisman Pub, Park Gate

I took the book a few times out of the shelf to read but I couldn't quite get into it. But now the time had come, I started it and was soon absorbed into the family story of the Waldvogels, a butcher from Germany with his wife who settled down in Argus, a small dusty town in the middle of America.
The story is woven colourful and describes the life of the family to which soon belong four sons, and the lives of people who are in different ways involved with the butcher's family.
Delphine and her father, her friend the undertaker, step and a half and many others. The story is told sometimes quite comical, for instance, when the feud of the two butchers is told, sometimes it gets tragic, but always emphatic to the characters of the book.
It was one of the most worthwhile reads this year.

I sent the book off today as part of the Previously crossed VBB. Enjoy reading,
Originalmulli.

Received a couple of days ago, thank you very much! Will start tomorrow. :)

I really enjoyed this, was pretty much gripped by it! The ending is such a shock that I immediately felt I needed to go back to the beginning and read it all again with that knowledge (I almost always do immediately read things a second time) but I actually couldn't do it, because I found the whole thing too sad. I think it is Louise Erdrich's unique talent that she can make lives, which in spite of very bizarre happenings do contain a fair portion of happiness and fulfilment, feel overall sweepingly bleak and tragic. The change in style of the last couple of chapters to be very distanced and dream-like adds to this bleakness I think.

I will put this back into the virtual bookbox if it goes another round. A fabulous read.

Wild releasing to a charity shop to clear my shelves!! A great charity shop with all the books well displayed in the back section. They get a good turnaround of stock there so I'm confident someone will find it soon!