Shadow Tag : A Novel
Author(s): Louise Erdrich
“Gripping. . . a hushed and haunting tale.” — USA Today
A stunning tour-de-force from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich. Shadow Tag fearlessly explores the complex nature of love, the fluid boundaries of identity, and the anatomy of one family’s struggle for survival and redemption.
When Irene America discovers that her artist husband, Gil, has been reading her diary, she begins a secret Blue Notebook, stashed securely in a safe-deposit box. There she records the truth about her life and marriage, while turning her Red Diary—hidden where Gil will find it—into a manipulative charade. As Irene and Gil fight to keep up appearances for their three children, their home becomes a place of increasing violence and secrecy. And Irene drifts into alcoholism, moving ever closer to the ultimate destruction of a relationship filled with shadowy need and strange ironies.
Review(s):
“Gripping…a hushed and haunting tale.”
“A fearless portrait of a marriage in free fall.”
“A portrait of an ‘iconic’ marriage on its way to dissolution…Erdrich’s unbridled urgency yields startlingly original phrasing as well as flashes of blinding lucidity.”
“A searing, personal examination of one family that’s falling apart…SHADOW TAG is compelling, a bleak exploration of the ties of blood and marriage.”
“Clear, urgent, deep as a swift river…Shadow Tag accomplishes the literary miracle of making a reader ravenous to finish it, while stinging with regret at how soon it must end.”
“A masterpiece…a captivating work of fiction…exquisite…tightly focused…arresting. . . . This profoundly tragic novel captures that lament in some of Erdrich’s most beautiful and urgent writing.”
“The intensity of this exquisite, character-driven tale, its searing efficiency in encompassing the painful legacy of the Native American genocide, and its piercing insights into sex, family, and power are breathtaking. . . . A masterfully concentrated and gripping novel of image and conquest, autonomy and love, inheritance and loss.”
“Erdrich offers a portrait that’s convincing…Shadow Tag is wonderfully, painfully readable and revealing.”
“A domestic drama that builds an almost thriller-like momentum. . . . A novel as dark and tragic as it is difficult to put down”
“A page-turner…a most compelling novel”
ISBN: 9780061536106