This enchanting novel is a book lover's delight that doubles as a ghost story. It's magical!
Written by Louise Erdrich, this is the story of Tookie, a Native American woman from the Ojibwe tribe who has just been released from prison (She was set up! It wasn't her fault!) and gets a job at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis. This isn't any old bookstore. It's the one that is owned (in real life) by Louise Erdrich. Adding to the fun, Louise herself is one of the minor characters in the novel. Tookie spent her years in prison reading "with murderous attention," and she is a wonderful addition to the staff. Tell her the kind of book you want to read, and Tookie can name a title or 10.
The book takes place from All Souls' Day 2019 to All Souls' Day 2020. Flora, who was white and one of the bookstore's best but also most difficult customers, dies. And then something odd begins to happen on All Souls' Day 2019. Tookie realizes that Flora's ghost is haunting the bookstore. Tookie and the other employees hear Flora shuffling through the store, her bracelets clicking and clacking as books mysteriously fall off the shelves, and paper towels in the bathroom are scattered. It isn't long before things turn more sinister as Tookie fears Flora is trying to possess her. Meanwhile, Tookie's stepdaughter arrives on their doorstep in late December with a newborn baby and an eyepopping story she doesn't want her father to know.
And then the story does a sudden, but incredible shift, with the advent of Covid and those scary first months of the virus when we didn't know much about it, including how it was spread. Just as they're getting used to wearing masks and spritzing hand sanitizer all day long, George Floyd is murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. Protests and violence follow. This is possibly the best part of the book as it fully personifies those tragic, horror-filled weeks, putting the reader in the heart of those protests in a way that transcends news stories and just feels so real, poignant, important, and scary.
What turns this into a literary novel (besides the fact that it's written by Louise Erdrich, which is enough) is the multiple symbolic meanings of the title: "The Sentence." Woven throughout the story are specific references to "the sentence," and they are different. It's fun to keep track.
This is a story of and for our times. It is a novel about everything that can haunt us—not just ghosts—and all the ways the people we love are the ones who exorcise those hauntings so we can keep living our lives.
Bonus: Dozens of titles are mentioned throughout the story, and Erdrich has helpfully assembled them and many other into several wonderful lists at the end of the book. Get ready to add to your TBR list!
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Louise Erdrich is one of if not my favorite writer. That being said, let me tell you that this book was a five-star read and will definitely be on the list of my favorite books of 2022.In this novel we follow Tookie, an indigenous woman who makes a dumb mistake and ends up going to prison. She is sentenced to 60 years. Her crime involves a dead body and transporting it across state lines but we get the feel right off the bat that Tookie is not a criminal, she is not a bad person, she was simply naive and was trying to help a friend.Everybody seems shocked by her crime and sentencing, only Tookie does not seem surprised. “I was on the wrong side of the statistics. Native Americans are the most oversentenced people currently imprisoned”. While in prison, Tookie reads as much as she can. Books become her salvation.But because of her tribe’s defense lawyer, her sentence is commuted and she is released from prison. Tookie then starts working at a local bookstore in Minneapolis, whose owner is a woman named Louise, and tries to rebuild her life. Erdrich lives in Minneapolis and also owns a bookstore much like the one in this novel.One of the customers of the bookstore is a white woman, who claims Native heritage, named Flora. But Flora suddenly passes away and her ghost refuses to leave the bookstore. That sort of sets off the ghost story in the book. But The Sentence is much more than just about an Indigenous woman or a haunted bookstore. It reflectson the city’s upheaval in 2020 amid the pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd.I loved how Erdrich portrayed the feeling of confusion at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, how scary it was when nobody knew exactly how it was transmitted, how it would change our lives. And in the middle of the pandemic, her city — and the whole country — is hammered by the terrible death of Jorge Floyd by the police, and with the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted everywhere.Will these events hunt us just like Flora haunted Tookie at the bookstore? This story takes you to so many unexpected places, I absolutely adored it. I am certain Louise Erdrich can write about everything under the sun. Her prose is absurdly beautiful. I also loved the book recommendations throughout the book and the list of books she provides at the end of the story.The Sentence has a little bit of everything: real issues, ghost story, mystery, a bookstore and book lovers. It is also on the longlist of the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction. I hope it wins. I highly recommend this book.
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Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 30, 2022
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 13, 2022
Louise Erdrich is one of if not my favorite writer. That being said, let me tell you that this book was a five-star read and will definitely be on the list of my favorite books of 2022.
In this novel we follow Tookie, an indigenous woman who makes a dumb mistake and ends up going to prison. She is sentenced to 60 years. Her crime involves a dead body and transporting it across state lines but we get the feel right off the bat that Tookie is not a criminal, she is not a bad person, she was simply naive and was trying to help a friend.
Everybody seems shocked by her crime and sentencing, only Tookie does not seem surprised. “I was on the wrong side of the statistics. Native Americans are the most oversentenced people currently imprisoned”. While in prison, Tookie reads as much as she can. Books become her salvation.
But because of her tribe’s defense lawyer, her sentence is commuted and she is released from prison. Tookie then starts working at a local bookstore in Minneapolis, whose owner is a woman named Louise, and tries to rebuild her life. Erdrich lives in Minneapolis and also owns a bookstore much like the one in this novel.
One of the customers of the bookstore is a white woman, who claims Native heritage, named Flora. But Flora suddenly passes away and her ghost refuses to leave the bookstore. That sort of sets off the ghost story in the book. But The Sentence is much more than just about an Indigenous woman or a haunted bookstore. It reflects
on the city’s upheaval in 2020 amid the pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd.
I loved how Erdrich portrayed the feeling of confusion at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, how scary it was when nobody knew exactly how it was transmitted, how it would change our lives. And in the middle of the pandemic, her city — and the whole country — is hammered by the terrible death of Jorge Floyd by the police, and with the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted everywhere.
Will these events hunt us just like Flora haunted Tookie at the bookstore? This story takes you to so many unexpected places, I absolutely adored it. I am certain Louise Erdrich can write about everything under the sun. Her prose is absurdly beautiful. I also loved the book recommendations throughout the book and the list of books she provides at the end of the story.
The Sentence has a little bit of everything: real issues, ghost story, mystery, a bookstore and book lovers. It is also on the longlist of the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction. I hope it wins. I highly recommend this book.
In this novel we follow Tookie, an indigenous woman who makes a dumb mistake and ends up going to prison. She is sentenced to 60 years. Her crime involves a dead body and transporting it across state lines but we get the feel right off the bat that Tookie is not a criminal, she is not a bad person, she was simply naive and was trying to help a friend.
Everybody seems shocked by her crime and sentencing, only Tookie does not seem surprised. “I was on the wrong side of the statistics. Native Americans are the most oversentenced people currently imprisoned”. While in prison, Tookie reads as much as she can. Books become her salvation.
But because of her tribe’s defense lawyer, her sentence is commuted and she is released from prison. Tookie then starts working at a local bookstore in Minneapolis, whose owner is a woman named Louise, and tries to rebuild her life. Erdrich lives in Minneapolis and also owns a bookstore much like the one in this novel.
One of the customers of the bookstore is a white woman, who claims Native heritage, named Flora. But Flora suddenly passes away and her ghost refuses to leave the bookstore. That sort of sets off the ghost story in the book. But The Sentence is much more than just about an Indigenous woman or a haunted bookstore. It reflects
on the city’s upheaval in 2020 amid the pandemic and the police killing of George Floyd.
I loved how Erdrich portrayed the feeling of confusion at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, how scary it was when nobody knew exactly how it was transmitted, how it would change our lives. And in the middle of the pandemic, her city — and the whole country — is hammered by the terrible death of Jorge Floyd by the police, and with the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted everywhere.
Will these events hunt us just like Flora haunted Tookie at the bookstore? This story takes you to so many unexpected places, I absolutely adored it. I am certain Louise Erdrich can write about everything under the sun. Her prose is absurdly beautiful. I also loved the book recommendations throughout the book and the list of books she provides at the end of the story.
The Sentence has a little bit of everything: real issues, ghost story, mystery, a bookstore and book lovers. It is also on the longlist of the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction. I hope it wins. I highly recommend this book.
Images in this review
Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
A Beautifully written and satisfying ghost story.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 5, 2022
Norman Housley
Sadly disappointing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 22, 2022
Jon A. Crowcroft
funny&touching and in the end, satisfying story
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 3, 2022Desert Diva
Quirky , educational, touching and funny
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 3, 2022
