Antelope Woman - by Louise Erdrich (Paperback)

About the Book

"When Klaus Shawano abducts Sweetheart Calico, the seductive Indian woman who has stolen his heart, and takes her far from her native Montana plains to his own Minneapolis home, he cannot begin to imagine the eventual ramifications his brazen act will entail. Shawano's mysterious Antelope Woman has utterly mesmerized him and soon proves to be a bewitching agent of chaos whose effect on others is disturbing and irresistible, as she alters the shape of things around her and the shape of things to come. The Roy and Shawano families have been inextricably intertwined for generations and, unbeknownst to them, the mysterious Antelope Woman is a part of their fierce and haunting history. Antelope Woman ingeniously illuminates how that history affects the contemporary descendants of these families who are the products of two cultures, Ojibwe and white, which sit in uneasy relationship to one another. This remarkable updated edition of National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich's 1998 novel now features fascinating new content, a new title, new cover art, and a new introductory note from the author." -- pg. [4] of cover.

Book Synopsis

This updated edition of National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich's 1998 novel now features fascinating new content, a new title, and a new foreword by the author--a riveting story that explores tensions between Native American and white cultures.

"Audacious and surprising. . . . One of America's most distinctive fictional voices."--Boston Globe

When Klaus Shawano abducts Sweetheart Calico, the seductive Indian woman who has stolen his heart, and takes her far from her native Montana plains to his own Minneapolis home, he cannot begin to imagine the eventual ramifications his brazen act will entail. Shawano's mysterious Antelope Woman has utterly mesmerized him--and soon proves to be a bewitching agent of chaos whose effect on others is disturbing and irresistible, as she alters the shape of things around her and the shape of things to come.

The Roy and Shawano families have been inextricably intertwined for generations and, unbeknownst to them, the mysterious Antelope Woman is a part of their fierce and haunting history. Antelope Woman ingeniously illuminates how that history affects the contemporary descendants of these families who are the products of two cultures, Ojibwe and white, which sit in uneasy relationship to one another.

In this remarkable novel, Erdrich weaves an unforgettable tapestry of ancestry, fate, harrowing tragedy, and redemption that is at once modern and eternal.

From the Back Cover

When Klaus Shawano abducts Sweetheart Calico, the seductive Indian woman who has stolen his heart, and takes her far from her native Montana plains to his own Minneapolis home, he cannot begin to imagine the eventual ramifications his brazen act will entail. Shawano's mysterious Antelope Woman has utterly mesmerized him--and soon proves to be a bewitching agent of chaos whose effect on others is disturbing and irresistible, as she alters the shape of things around her and the shape of things to come.

The Roy and Shawano families have been inextricably intertwined for generations, and unbeknownst to them, the mysterious Antelope Woman is a part of their fierce and haunting history. Antelope Woman ingeniously illuminates how that history affects the contemporary descendants of these families who are the products of two cultures, Ojibwe and white, which sit in uneasy relationship to each other.

This remarkable updated edition of National Book Award--winning and New York Times bestselling author Louise Erdrich's 1998 novel now features fascinating new content, a new title, new cover art, and a new introductory note from the author.

Review Quotes

"Extraordinary new offering of history, lore, obsession, loss, and love. Beautifully, extravagantly, in narrative fragments that mix metaphor and story, Erdrich creates a seemingly haphazard, totally absorbing series of oblique snapshots of 'the colliding histories and destinies' of these characters. The writing is lyrical yet self-mocking, shifting from broad comedy to horror and back again. The operative metaphor is beading: small particles string together to create decorative designs that link generations, cultures, colors." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Spiritual yet pragmatic, Erdrich's deft lyricism affirms while it defies the usual lines separating the mythical from the daily. Erdrich leads every event in her book to its outer limits, so no detail is mundane. And each scene contains bits of hilarity, extravagance, of horror. Throughout, the author's ample afection for human nature finds expression in playful inventiveness. Erdrich's many readers will bend their ears to it, and like any worthy recipients of prayer will be moved as they are bewildered." - Boston Globe Sunday Magazine

"A news event as much as a novel. It is her strongest, most deeply felt novel since her first, the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning Love Medicine.... Glorious writing...dead-on in its passionate lyricism. Erdrich keeps us glued to the window, peering in at lovers' ecstasy, quiet desperation, raucous flailing about, the hubbub of celebration. This is gripping fiction that combines storytelling mastery with line-by-line artistry." - Newsweek