Inland: A Novel

I love westerns, though I don't read nearly enough of them. This novel has two entwined storylines, both of which are classics of the genre: a homesteading family beset by hardship (draught and the menace of a powerful rancher), and a vagrant rider running from the law. I loved the way these two narratives, one stationary and the other itinerant, alternated and ultimately converged. I think I saw this book billed as magical realism, but there was only a pinch of magic, which was really the perfect amount.

this didn't work for me (I didn't much care for The Tiger's Wife either), unless it's an exercise in how many times one book can use the word “depredation” (once would have been sufficient); okay, I did like the camel, and that's why the book merits 3 stars