Answers to Go

SAN MARCOS PUBLIC LIBRARY

625 E. HOPKINS ST.

512-393-8200

Q. I recently read the book “The Sentence” by Louise Erdrich. Could you recommend some other books like it?

If you haven’t A. read The Sentence, here is a brief synopsis: A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls’ Day, but she simply won’t leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading “with murderous attention,” must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation and furious reckoning.

One book you might enjoy is “These Ghosts are Family” by Maisy Card. This novel centers on Abel and Vera Paisley, a working-class Jamaican couple, striving to build a better life for their children. Abel travels to London in the early 1960s in search of fortune. Instead, he sees an opportunity to escape the drudgery of his life by faking his death and assuming a new identity. Vera, now a widow, is racked with guilt over her husband’s “death” and takes out her grief on her children, Irene and Vincent. The effects of Abel’s decision reverberate across generations. “Ghosts” follows the Paisleys over time and across continents, as they wrestle with the burdens of family lore and struggle to forge independent identities.

Despite everything, Abel finds a second chance at love. Vincent follows his dream to move to New York. Irene also moves to New York but realizes you can never fully leave the past behind.

Ghosts — figurative (“These Ghosts Are Family”) and literal (“The Sentence”) breathe life to these #OwnVoices literary fiction stories that look at painful historic events steeped in racism and violence.

Another read-alike suggestion is “This Town Sleeps” by Dennis E. Staples. Set on an Ojibwe reservation in northern Minnesota, “This Town Sleeps” is the story of Marion Lafournier, a gay Ojibwe man, and his search for meaning in a town he cannot seem to leave. When he begins a romance with a closeted former high school classmate, Shannon, Marion finds himself struggling to connect with the volcanic and unstable man. One night, while roaming the dark streets of Geshig, Marion unknowingly brings to life a dog from underneath the elementary school playground. The mysterious revenant leads him to the grave of Kayden Kelliher, an Ojibwe basketball star who was murdered at the young age of 17, and whose presence still lingers in the memories of the townsfolk. While investigating the fallen hero’s death, Marion discovers family connections and an old Ojibwe legend that may be the secret to unraveling the mystery he has found himself in.

Both intricately plotted, these #OwnVoices works of literary fiction follow the everyday lives of Native Americans in Minnesota who encounter ghosts. Both tackle racism (“The Sentence”) and prejudice (“This Town Sleeps”) in moving and darkly humorous narratives.

For more book recommendations, call or email the library at 512- 393-8200 or smpl@sanmarcostx.gov.