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This Tender Land
A Novel
eBook - 2019
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
"If you liked Where the Crawdads Sing, you'll love This Tender Land...This story is as big-hearted as they come." —Parade
The unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.
In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota's Gilead River, Odie O'Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent's wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
"If you liked Where the Crawdads Sing, you'll love This Tender Land...This story is as big-hearted as they come." —Parade
The unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.
In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota's Gilead River, Odie O'Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent's wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
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Atria Books
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Add a CommentTwo stars, but only as a beach read.
Heavy-handed reworking of Homer, with the author nudging the reader incessantly after the escape begins: "Get it? It's the Odyssey. See? Get it?"
The movie "O Brother Where Art Thou" is so much more fun and IT has great music.
At least people who hadn't known about the Mankato massacre or the abuses in "Indian schools" (and reformatories) will pick up something, but Colson Whitehead does a immensely superior job in his novel "The Nickel Boys." Kreuger is no Marilynn Robinson.
Agree with others who thought the ending contrived. But it's a beach read, so who cares?
Why did I read it at all? ONLY because my book group selected it.
I agree with IrmaReader somewhat. The journey of four orphans during the depression years and the characters they met along the way was interesting enough but for the youngest orphan who appears much older and wiser than she actually is. The ending seemed to be thrown together haphazardly and then ended.
A great historical fiction novel about a group of children and an adventure they have together over the course of a summer. Themes of religion, life traveling along a river, and the struggles of Native American people at the beginning of the 1900’s.
Native children escape orphanage to find a place in the world. Tale of their journey. Good read.
This Tender Land by William Kent Kruger is a great read. Characters your heart will embrace: a plot that moves in twists and turns, and a lot characters to root for - makes this a perfect book to lose yourself in. Set 90 years ago in the Minnesota four orphans have banded together to find there way. I recommend it.
If you want a religious book, this is it. About halfway through, it's all religion. The jacket synopsis doesn't state this at all and is another of Krueger's bait and switch books. He freely admits that he heavily borrows from Homer and Twain and it shows. The ending is as if he grabbed ideas out of the blue. He really should take a sabbatical from writing for a while until he gets focus.
I thought this book was a masterpiece. I liked it much better than Ordinary Grace, which I barely remember. I highly recommend This Tender Land.
Great book! What a talent and gift is William Kent Kreuger. Interesting time period, great characters, well paced plot, satisfying ending. I don't know how it could have been better.
This is one of those books that's an instant classic. Beautifully written, with memorable characters and an amazing plot that kept me engaged throughout - with a surprise twist towards the end. I loved the author's homage to The Grapes of Wrath, Huckleberry Finn, The Wizard of Oz and The Odyssey. Rather than describing the plot, which you can read from many of the other reviews or the publisher's description, I simply and strongly urge you read this wonderful book.
This was a touch too long, and a bit too sweetly sentimental, but I mostly enjoyed it. The Native American character of Forrest made me feel squirmy though. He was kind of a stereotype, and spouted some mystical nonsense about the Sioux that made me cringe.