I struggled through Inland. It was very well and descriptively written. It captured the hardship of both living in, and travelling through, the Wild West. Water really is the stuff of life, and the getting of it, and going without it is central to the book. On every page I felt thirsty. Hats off to Tea Obreht for that, and for telling very different narratives than the usual Western.
Boy, is this story bleak and full of suffering. Nora lives an unfulfilled life as a frontierswoman trying to make a home with a foolish dreamer of a husband, three sons and her husband's cousin. A mysterious beast is stalking their land. A menacing cattle owner is taking over the area. Her husband and two sons have gone missing, the handsome sheriff is hanging around, and there's still no water.
Lurie Mattie is a rootless outlaw forever on the run. He is haunted by spirits which make his life a misery. You only find out how these rwo stories interact at the end. You have to really be in the mood for this story as it is a hard read, well done. Four stars.

I received an this as an e-book from netgalley to review.

I chose this book as I’d read The Tiger’s Wife years ago and enjoyed it. It was not as well developed as it could have been but had some really intriguing ideas that suggested a writer with a lot of promise.

I have, however, been unable to finish the writer’s new novel. One of the main reasons has to be the setting. In her previous novel, orbeht wrote about former Yugoslavia and some of the traditions and beliefs of that culture, which made it unusual and fascinating. This novel is set in 19th century US, hardly an original setting especially when contrasted to her last one. Her unique selling point was the fact she was writing in English about something no other popular writer was writing about - with this setting she loses her individuality.

To top that off, the opening is hard work. I read a lot and I read for pleasure and this was not pleasurable at all! It changes between first and second and third person for no apparent reason and it’s hard to know who is our main focus and even the gender of the ‘main’ character.

Unfortunately for me it is not worth carrying on with, if I felt that her last book was 5 stars I might be inclined to attempt it; it wasn’t. It was a book that promised much and failed to deliver. This needs to grab its reader with an unusual premise or a fast moving plot that intrigues. I felt it did neither. With so many books out there I haven’t got time to devote to a book that I’m not enjoying from the first.

I’m very sorry that this book didn’t work for me especially as it was my first netgalley book.

I am just not getting on with this book. I have barely read a word in three days as I keep on putting off picking it up. It's slow and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I have read a couple of reviews that liken it to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and maybe that's why I don't like it as his Love In The Time of Cholera is one of the worst books I have ever attempted to read. For me it just doesn't live up to the description and my expectations. I am sorry about this as I like the writing, sentence structure and vocabulary.

Set in the Arizona Territory in the second half of the 19th century, Tea Obreht’s new novel has a dual narrative. One takes place over the course of one day, the other spans decades. Together, they form a beautifully evocative and imaginative story of peoples and places of the American west, the struggles of the settlers to eek a living in a desert landscape, their need to belong and find companionship, love and understanding.

In 1893, Nora awaits the return of her husband who late bringing back a much-needed supply of water. Her two elder sons have also disappeared, leaving her to look after her youngest son, elderly mother in law and her husband’s ward, Josie who can speak to the dead. As she attempts to find out what has kept her husband away and where her sons have gone, she reminisces about her married life, motherhood and the death of a daughter some years before.

Meanwhile and some years previously, Lurie, an orphan also reminisces about his life, the band of outlaws he fell in with, then later a group of colourful characters – cameleers brought to the west to help carry supplies to outposts and later still as he ranges across the territory with his camel Burke to whom he tells of his life.

There are elements of magical realism, Nora’s youngest boy is deeply superstitious, Nora speaks to the ghost of her daughter and Lurie sees spirits too.

The two narratives do come together in a way that I personally found really satisfying. Most of all, I liked how everyone is an immigrant to Inland, it is a story of how immigrants brought and adapted their own deeply varied customs and beliefs to the new land and I think this resonates with contemporary America. Obreht also beautifully wove her own people’s background into Lurie’s story. It may just be my wishful thinking but I thought I detected a nod to Bridge Over The Drina, which was just wonderful.

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review Inland.

Tea Obreht is a writer I love to read from. The Tiger's Wife was a beautiful book, and I think I like this one even a bit more.
It's set in the US west, and told from dual perspectives. Another aspect I love is it's set over a wide period of time and geography. I love the richness of this book, and its characters. I was rooted for Nora and Josie especially.
Obreht's storytelling is amazing. I'd definitely read from her again.

Thanks a lot to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Téa Obreht’s first novel, The Tiger’s Wife, was one of my stand-out novels from the last decade, so I approached her long-awaited second novel, Inland, with both excitement and trepidation. The central plot thread of Inland is set over one long, thirsty day in a small settlement called Amargo in the Arizona Territory in 1893. Nora’s husband has failed to return to their homestead with with fresh water, so she’s watching the level of her household bucket inexorably reduce as she curses her three irritating sons, two of whom are also absent, and her housemaid Josie, who’s insisting she’s seen a strange beast out in the gulch. Josie has a habit of conversing with what she calls ‘the other living’, or ghosts, which also annoys Nora, even though she regularly chats with the spirit of her dead daughter, Evelyn, who she believes is bound to their house. In a second thread, Lurie, a Turkish immigrant on the run from the law, joins up with the Camel Corps to travel through the parched West and narrates his life story to beloved camel Burke. These two stories knot together in the final pages of the book, as Obreht soars into a dazzling, stream-of-consciousness ending.

Inland is a slow, immersive and impressive novel. Obreht is such a talented writer; this is a very different book from The Tiger’s Wife, yet the way she conjures up the mindset of the homesteaders in this parched and lonely land is spot-on. She writes so well about a shifting landscape peopled by settlers of all races, from whites to ‘Arabs’ to Mexicans, by Native Americans, and by ghosts. I sometimes struggle with such an obvious supernatural presence in a novel, but Obreht balances it perfectly; the grit of Nora’s narration is leavened by her matter-of-fact dialogues with Evelyn. The campaign that Nora conducts via her husband’s newspaper to try and stop the county seat being moved from Amargo to Ash River, which would leave the settlement even more isolated, is both humorous and tense. There’s something reminiscent of Eleanor Catton’s New Zealand-set The Luminaries in the way that Obreht explores a tight-knit pioneer community with dark things brewing under the surface. However, the main narrative was undercut for me by Lurie’s sections, which I found much less engaging, although I loved the final resolution of his story. Because of this, Inland was a novel that I appreciated intellectually, but didn’t take to my heart in the same way as The Tiger’s Wife.

This is an unusual book, I can't remember reading anything similar - set in the US west, with dual narratives spanning many years and wide geography, with elements of magical realism as well as factual descriptions of how camels were used in the US deserts.

It is quite a demanding read, and at times I found it a little dry, but its ambition, scope and sheer difference make it worth reading.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.

DNF I just couldn't get in to this book, there was no character jumping out at me to route first and writing style just didn't work for me. I have to admit it's not my usual genre of book, but it sounded intriguing when I read blurb in netgalley.

Tea Obreht is a masterful storyteller. Her prose is unlike any other author I have read. Beautifully atmospheric and an absolute treat to read. It was predominantly the style of writing which kept me going to the end of the book as, sadly, the story just did not grab me. I loved the characters we are introduced to, particularly Nora and Josie, and the suggestions of something supernatural going on which weave throughout the narrative. However I was somewhat disappointed that neither the plot or the characters developed in the way I hoped they would as I did not find the core story particularly engaging, although it did improve in the final third of the book. I did not enjoy Lurie's story very much and was always keen for the focus to return to Nora. However I can absolutely see why other readers may disagree as both strands of the narrative offer something different.
While I did not like this as much as The Tiger's Wife, it is still a high quality piece of literature and I hope to read more from Tea Obreht in the future.
Thank you to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.