![]() ![]() As Tookie tries to appease Flora, she and her bookstore colleagues-a teacher, an historian, and an artist-confront historic ghosts from the violent seizing of the land by white settlers as the fear and sorrow of the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold, and the city ignites in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer. ![]() A magnetizing narrator, Tookie seems tough and ornery, but she is actually quite “porous” emotionally and suffused with love for her tribal leader husband, Pollux, in spite of their complicated past. The story of Tookie’s body-snatching caper and subsequent horrifically long sentence is hilariously ludicrous and heartbreaking the tale of how reading saved her life in prison is deeply affirming. ![]() Tookie is supremely dedicated to her work, forever amazed, given her prison record, to have been hired by store owner Louise. The unhappy spirit is that of a former customer, Flora, who irritated the Native staff members, especially Tookie, with her dubious claims of an Indigenous heritage. The haunting occurs at Erdrich’s actual Minneapolis bookstore, Birchbark Books. ![]() The many-hued, finely patterned weave of Erdrich’s funny, evocative, painful, and redemptive ghost story includes strands of autobiography and even cameo appearances. ![]()
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