--- title: The Mighty Red: 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 description: Find out why "The Mighty Red" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172752/the-mighty-red/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-13T13:24:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:43:18.811Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'The Mighty Red' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172752/the-mighty-red/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff34f758123f76e/698a8d11b21a9ca02150f7e3/The-Mighty-Red-Louise-Erdrich.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'The Mighty Red' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'The Mighty Red' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff34f758123f76e/698a8d11b21a9ca02150f7e3/The-Mighty-Red-Louise-Erdrich.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 13, 2024 # The Mighty Red by [Shannon Carlin](https://time.com/author/shannon-carlin/) ## Shannon Carlin Carlin is a contributor for TIME.  Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, _The Mighty Red_, a captivating multigenerational tale set amid the [2008 financial crisis](https://time.com/5401647/america-global-order/), begins with a frenzied proposal. Gary Geist, a wealthy and preternaturally lucky football player, asks Kismet Poe, his rebellious Ojibwe classmate, to marry him. This is much to the chagrin of Kismet’s superstitious truck-driver mom Crystal and her nerdy, homeschooled crush Hugo, who would also like to one day make her his bride, if only he could afford a car. As Kismet weighs her options, members of her kooky North Dakota community find themselves taking sides. The teen love triangle is emblematic of the economic divide in the small town where Gary’s parents own the farm that Kismet’s mom, and many others, work on. But in Erdich’s unconventional love story, it’s the titular river—the site of a communal tragedy—that holds the key to understanding Kismet’s heart. **Buy Now:** _The Mighty Red_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780063277052) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3CfxWVg) | [Barnes & Noble](https://fave.co/3YQPHDc) These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172752/the-mighty-red/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172752/the-mighty-red/"},"headline":"The Mighty Red","datePublished":"2024-11-13T13:24:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:43:18.811Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172752/the-mighty-red/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff34f758123f76e/698a8d11b21a9ca02150f7e3/The-Mighty-Red-Louise-Erdrich.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Shannon Carlin","jobTitle":"Carlin is a contributor for TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/shannon-carlin/"}],"creator":"Shannon Carlin","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff34f758123f76e/698a8d11b21a9ca02150f7e3/The-Mighty-Red-Louise-Erdrich.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172752/the-mighty-red/","name":"The Mighty Red"}}]}] ```