This book is epic in every sense of the word. I'm late to reading it, but I just finished it for my church bookclub and am so glad I did. Using American history, author William Kent Krueger weaves a majestic and emotionally resonant fictional tale. It's a page-turner that touches on many themes, including the power of storytelling, the horrors of American history, love in all its forms, the concepts of God/faith, and the search for home. I loved it.

A quick summary: It's 1932, and four orphans escape from an "Indian training school" and end up on the run by canoeing along Minnesota's Gilead River. While trying to stay ahead of their pursuers, the evil people who treated them horribly at the school, they meet many people and experience so much along the way. The narrator, Odie, tells their engrossing story.

First, I loved the framing of the novel. In the beginning, we immediately know Odie is an elderly man "telling" the readers this story from his life. So right away the storytelling aspect of the book comes into play. It's a powerful and neat way to speak to the power of story, both as a real-life narrative tool to educate about our history using fiction but also how important of a role it plays in the book. Odie is a storyteller and uses the tool throughout the book to charm, entertain, and educate other characters, particularly one of his companions, little Emmy. His ability to tell a good story is showcased frequently and builds in the reader an appreciation for how many aspects of life storytelling touches.

It's through this storytelling that readers learn about a horrific feature of American history: The "Indian training schools," that took Native children away from their parents and worked to erase their Native culture and "train" them in the culture and religion of white Americans. It also reveals the hunger, economic struggles, and other harsh realities that many Americans faced due to the horrors of the Great Depression. The pain and struggles suffered by the characters due to these are palpable thanks to Krueger's riveting description.

With love, we see it in many forms. Familial, friendship, romantic, and just the basic human decency of being kind and helpful to strangers. This exploration of love is tied to the theme of God/spirituality that runs through the entire novel. Odie's faith changes throughout the book: It starts with the idea of "The Tornado God" or a God that only brings destruction and pain. As his experiences with various people and places grow, his view of God changes, too. The exploration of faith and spirituality in this book is done in such an authentic and amazing way. It offers a complex view of God/religion that's realistic and speaks to the expansiveness of it...how different people believe different things, but how underlying all spirituality is a common theme: hope. Hope for good to triumph over bad, hope for love over hate, hope for a decent life filled with love for all humans.

I could go on and on about this book, but do yourself a favor and read it. It's an epic story of struggle, faith, history, human connection, and, most importantly, the power of love and hope. I know you'll love it as much as I did.