This novel is about life on the Western frontier in the second half of the nineteenth century. We follow two narratives: one narrated by Lurie Mattie, aka Misafir, a boy-outlaw-turned-cameleer, and the other following Nora, a frontier woman in Arizona.

For me, this novel was a slough to get through. I came close to giving up on it so many times, but in all honesty the gorgeous cover art pushed me to pick it back up and keep reading. I can understand why others would love this book, but I had a personal aversion to the writing style.

In Lurie Mattie's narration, the writing twists and weaves through scenery of what would become the West and Southwest United States. There is an element of magical realism in Lurie's ability to talk to the dead, and of the dead latching on to him with "their want". Each dead person who ties himself to Lurie comes with a "want", something from their time alive that becomes an obsession once they are dead. For one it's stealing, another it's drinking water. These otherworldly appetites take hold of Lurie until he gives in to them himself.

In the chapters following Nora, we follow third-person narration of her family's woes in the Arizona territory. Haunted by her dead infant daughter and a life-threatening thirst caused by drought and the theft of their water, Nora spends the day wrestling with the absence of her missing husband, her newly-disappeared sons, and the foolishness of their séance-holding servant-girl Josie, who believes there are ghosts and beasts causing problems for the family.

I suggest reading the first chapter and deciding whether you enjoy it or not - if you enjoy Tea Obreht's writing, you'll enjoy the novel. If you have trouble connecting with her style, like I did, skip this novel. It was too disjointed and focused on lyrical scenery for me, especially the parts narrated by Lurie. There is an element of suspense hanging over the entire story, but I found even that element of mystery to be boring.

Needs more camel

w o w. what an absolute stunner. i'm in awe of what a huge, huge story was folded into a single day for nora, while lurie's story unfurled over years and land and so many people. the magical realism was so full and seamless that it was like just another part of the landscape, which is exactly how magic should work in a story like this. this was just beautiful in the most heart-wrenching way.

Half the time while reading I was wondering what was happening, the other half of the time I was wondering why it was happening.

She is an excellent storyteller

Life's happiness is always a famine.

There's apparently a real life monument to Hadji Ali (Hi Jolly) in Quartzsite, Arizona.

Enjoyable characters. Great imagery of life in the western territories. This isn’t East of Eden even though it seems to want to be in the sense of a book on founding myth of an area. I can’t decide if the camels and ghosts were allegorical. I preferred The Tigers Wife a lot more.

The self imposed wounds and inflicted trauma of the manifest destiny concept, both personal and historically, is well explored through all of the characters’s storylines.

Powerful prose. Obreht was meant to tell stories.

This was a DNF for me. There is some beautiful prose but the pacing was sooooooo slow and couldn’t get in to either of the characters.