Louise Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and author of many novels as well as volumes of poetry, children’s books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel The Round House won the National Book Award for Fiction. Love Medicine, and LaRose received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. Erdrich lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore. Her book, The Night Watchman, won the Pulitzer Prize. A ghost lives in her creaky old house.

In the farmland of eastern North Dakota, where the sugar beet is king of the crops, Crystal and Kismet, mother and daughter, haven't exactly been lucky in love. Martin Poe, Kismet's dad, is surely a charmer, but Crystal has always kept a secret stash of money from him, and despite wearing a ring, never committed to a marriage. And Kismet? She's being pursued by Gary, a high school classmate whose family is convinced that Crystal can pull Gary out of his grief and guilt from the tragic accident the year before. What a sense of place The Mighty Red offers us, with land beaten down by factory farming and fossil fuel extraction, but still capable of amazing things. And I love how Erdrich brings to life a large cast of characters, imbuing even the peripheral of players with grace and humor.

~ Daniel Goldin, Boswell Book Company