Synopses & Reviews
Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious knife set, Fidelis sets out for America. In Argus, North Dakota, he builds a business, a home for his family—which includes Eva and four sons—and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. When the Old World meets the New—in the person of Delphine Watzka—the great adventure of Fidelis's life begins. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis, and the ground trembles. These momentous encounters will determine the course of Delphine's life, and the trajectory of this brilliant novel.
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“Grand and generous fiction… Erdrichs most sweeping and ambitious yet.” BookPage
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“Lush and stark … employing vivid imagery, deft description and dialogue that flows … Stunning language.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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“Satisfying and life-affirming.” Atlantic Monthly
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“Louise Erdrich hits every note in THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB” Vanity Fair
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“[THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB] is marked by moments of true creative genius, exquisitely imagined and masterfully drawn.” Richmond Times-Dispatch
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“Louise Erdrichs rousing and radiant new novel THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB is all kinds of lovely.” Newsweek
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“The Master Butchers Singing Club reveals on of our finest writers at the peak of her considerable powers.” Minneapolis Star Tribune
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“Delphine, the books central figure, is Erdrichs most finely wrought and compelling character.” Denver Rocky Mountain News
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“Emotionally resonant.” Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
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“[A] magnificent tale … poignant in the mysteries it evokes and patient with the questions is leaves unanswered.” Los Angeles Times Book Review
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“Miraculous …[Erdrich is] at the peak of powers as a writer … Her work is as melodious as ever.” Boston Globe
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“Not since Ricard Russos 2001 novel EMPIRE FALLS ... have I enjoyed the company of such memorable characters.” Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today
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“THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB can surely be cast as the most wrenching and wise of Erdrichs nine novels.” Miami Herald
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“Rich and vibrant …Magnificent.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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“Appropriately grim and thoughtful, THE MASTER BUTCHERS SINGING CLUB is also full of tenderness and life … Marvelous.” Entertainment Weekly
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“A thoughtful, artful, painfully moving addition to an ongoing American saga .. unimaginably rich.” Kirkus Reviews
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“[A] masterpiece… Erdrich never hits a false note.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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“Each moment and its particulars dazzles … Fidelis and firm-bellied Delphine and the rest [of the characters] are masterworks.” San Francisco Chronicle
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“An enrapturing plunge into the depths of the human heart.” Washington Post Book World
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“A brilliantly layered look at wars costs …Daring, graceful, comprehending and, rooted in the great plains, uniquely American.” Kansas City Star
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“Erdrich is an abundantly gifted storyteller, with a penchant for meticulous detail and tremendous empathy for her characters.” Charlotte Observer
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“A substantial, beautifully composed, confident work of art … both expansive in its reach and intimate in its intense focus.” O magazine
Synopsis
From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author Louise Erdrich, a profound and enchanting new novel: a richly imagined world "where butchers sing like angels."
Having survived World War I, Fidelis Waldvogel returns to his quiet German village and marries the pregnant widow of his best friend, killed in action. With a suitcase full of sausages and a master butcher's precious knife set, Fidelis sets out for America. In Argus, North Dakota, he builds a business, a home for his family--which includes Eva and four sons--and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. When the Old World meets the New--in the person of Delphine Watzka--the great adventure of Fidelis's life begins. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis, and the ground trembles. These momentous encounters will determine the course of Delphine's life, and the trajectory of this brilliant novel.
About the Author
Louise Erdrich lives with her family in Minnesota and is the owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore. Ms. Erdrich is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, and this story—which will, in the end, span one hundred years in the life of an Ojibwe woman—was inspired when Ms. Erdrich and her mother, Rita Gourneau Erdrich, were researching their own family history.
Chickadee begins a new part of the story that started with
The Birchbark House, a National Book Award finalist;
The Game of Silence, winner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction; and the acclaimed
The Porcupine Year.
Ms. Erdrich is also the bestselling author of many critically acclaimed novels for adults, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves and National Book Award finalist The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. She is also the author of the picture book Grandmother's Pigeon, illustrated by Jim LaMarche.