Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red is the latest pick for Jenna Bush Hager’s Today show book club.
Erdrich’s novel, published Tuesday by Harper, tells the story of several people in the town of Argus, North Dakota, trying to navigate their lives and relationships during the global financial crisis of 2008. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the novel (a finalist for this year’s Kirkus Prize),“Erdrich has few equals in braiding landscape and sky into the marrow of her characters.…In this tender and capacious story, love and tragedy mingle along the river and into the world.”
Hager announced the novel’s selection on the Today show, saying, “She is one of my favorite authors. Y’all, it is set in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, and it is centered around a love triangle between haunted yet successful Gary, who wants to marry free-spirited Kismet, but her best friend, Hugo, is also in love with her and determined to steal her away.…It is a love story. It is a story of family, community, and the fraught relationship between people and the land they call home. You guys, I loved this book!”
Erdrich told Today.com, “Jenna’s support for reading makes the world better, and the exciting books she chooses put me in the best of company.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
