Title: This Tender Land           

Author: William Kent Krueger            

Genre: Historical Fiction         

Publisher: Atria Books        

Format: Paperback 

Pages: 464

Rating: 4/5 stars 

Synopsis (Goodreads):

For fans of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing, a magnificent novel about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression, from the New York Timesbestselling author of Ordinary Grace. 

1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, 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 unforgettable summer, these four orphans will 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.

Review:

Thank you @simonschusterca for the copy of this book!

This book was fantastic and really gripping throughout the whole book! I loved the plot, the characters, and the way the author dealt with controversial issues.

The book takes place in 1932, during a time when The United States and Canada both forcibly removed Indigenous children and put them in a school to learn the western way of life. The main characters, while not Indigenous, are also forced to attend this school as they are orphans with no where else to go. I’m not sure how often this happened, as every time I have looked into these schools, I haven’t heard mention of white children attending these schools alongside Indigenous children, but I guess it could have happened? I would be interested to hear people’s thoughts on this!

Anywho, back to the story at hand! Odie and his brother Albert experience horrific things at this school, and are forced to flee down the river to reach St. Louis. On this adventure they meet a number of interesting characters, and well as learn a lot about themselves!

This book has amazing writing and definitely kept me on my toes! I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next, and just when I thought the story would start to feel flat, the author would pick it right back up again with a new addition to the plot! Overall a very interesting read!

Happy reading!