Inland, Téa Obreht’s long-awaited second novel, unwinds two tangled narratives from the Old West to tease out the themes of nation-building, belonging and one of Obreht’s favorite subjects, death. Nora Lark is looking for her husband, sons and water, all of which have mysteriously disappeared from her Arizona homestead. Meanwhile, Lurie Mattie, a camel-trainer from Yugoslavia, is trying to stay alive even though the people who most want to talk to him are the dead. As their stories converge, Obreht weaves in interspecies communication, folklore and family—much as she did with her bestselling debut, The Tiger's Wife—to slowly reveal that there are some things that smart people are the last to understand.
Buy now: Inland