Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of my Ancestors (Literary Travel) [Paperback]

Louise Erdrich (Author)

Book Description

Series: Literary Travel | Publication Date: June 20, 2006

For more than twenty years Louise Erdrich has dazzled readers with the intricately wrought, deeply poetic novels which have won her a place among today's finest writers. Her nonfiction is equally eloquent, and this lovely memoir offers a vivid glimpse of the landscape, the people, and the long tradition of storytelling that give her work its magical, elemental force.

In a small boat like those her Native American ancestors have used for countless generations, she travels to Ojibwe home ground, the islands of Lake of the Woods in southern Ontario. Her only companions are her new baby and the baby's father, an Ojibwe spiritual leader, on a pilgrimage to the sacred rock paintings their people have venerated for centuries as mystical "teaching and dream guides," and where even today Ojibwe leave offerings of tobacco in token of their power. With these paintings as backdrop, Erdrich summons to life the Ojibwe's spirits and songs, their language and sorrows, and the tales that are in their blood, echoing through her own family's very contemporary American lives and shaping her vision of the wider world. Thoughtful, moving, and wonderfully well observed, her meditation evokes ancient wisdom, modern ways, and the universal human concerns we all share.

"This book is a treasure and a delight."—Minneapolis Star Tribune

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Louise Erdrich, daughter of an Ojibwe-French mother and a German-American father, is one of our foremost contemporary writers. Her first novel, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and other prizes and launched a remarkable string of books that includes The Beet Queen, The Bingo Palace, Tales of Burning Love, and The Antelope Wife, among other triumphs. She lives in Minneapolis.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (June 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792253736
• ISBN-13: 978-0792253730
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.4 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Regional Canada

More About the Author

Louise Erdrich is the author of twelve novels as well as volumes of poetry, children's books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her debut novel, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent novel, The Plague of Doves, a New York Times bestseller, received the highest praise from Philip Roth, who wrote, "Louise Erdrich's imaginative freedom has reached its zenith--The Plague of Doves is her dazzling masterpiece." Louise Erdrich lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.

Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful read, July 11, 2011

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D. Jones (Riverdale, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of my Ancestors (Literary Travel) (Paperback)

Unlike her many wonderful novels, this is a detailed account of her travel through the northern Minnesota lake region with her baby daughter. It is filled with wisps of Indian philosophy and lore. It will stay with you and enrich you.