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The Sentence

by Louise Erdrich

Narrator Louise Erdrich

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Length 11 hours 49 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“I can't wait to read everything from Louise Erdrich after thoroughly enjoying this book!”
— Nichole • Bryant Books & Music

Bookseller recommendation

“The Sentence is a ghost story, although it is as comforting as it is haunting. It’s an intimate picture of bookselling, and of bookselling during a pandemic and social justice reckoning, set in Erdrich’s own store in Minneapolis. Its heroine, queer Indigenous ex-con Tookie, is so alive she leaps right off the page—gritty, passionate, and human. Louise Erdrich is a natural storyteller and fabulous narrator—warm and sincere, with perfect timing. This is a book about connection in every way possible. It’s funny and enraging and heartwarming all at once.”
— Mary • Raven Book Store

Bookseller recommendation

“A heartfelt and occasionally hilarious account of life and work at an independent bookstore through the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. While the reflections on family and pandemic life are cathartic, this book is also about identity and how our history and present shape it. Through encounters with the ghost of a troublesome lifelong customer, and the conversations that ensue, Erdrich masterfully weaves an exploration of community, identity, and family that is guaranteed to entertain.”
— Lauren • Chapterhouse Books

Bookseller recommendation

“I loved this book! The narrative voice is so strong and was read so well in this audiobook. You can't help but fall for Tookie as she wades through a year of turmoil, with a ghost that won't give up haunting her and the bookstore she works in. Rich in characters, perspective, honesty, and a love of books and reading, this is a book is like a favourite home-cooked meal made by someone new. What a storyteller. ”
— Samara • Notably, A Book Lover's Emporium

Summary
About the author
About the narrator

In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.

Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. 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.

The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Fiction Fiction - Literary

Louise Erdrich, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, is the award-winning author of many novels as well as volumes of poetry, children’s books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Erdrich lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.