This Tender Land

This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger

In spite of being horribly distracted, like everybody else, by social/physical distancing and all the other ramifications of a global pandemic (what a wild ride!), I really enjoyed reading This Tender Land. 

Just when, for my own sanity, I really needed to distance myself from my phone and laptop, This Tender Land delivered a rollicking story, actually an epic tale, set in the poverty of 1932 Great Depression America. Mistreated and abused, four kids in an orphanage take off on an epic journey by canoe from the back of beyond in Minnesota making their way downriver to the great Mississippi, hoping to reach a relative who might save them in St. Louis, Missouri. 

Each of the kids has a special ability in a particular area and, as you might expect, each is looking for something different in their lives, not so different from all of us. They learn to appreciate one another as family members, not always agreeing but sticking together for the most part through all the adventures they meet. Along the way these Vagabonds travel through the landscapes of their own lives, discovering not only who they are and what they are capable of but also that what's important to each of them is different for the others. A time of growing up.

William Kent Kreuger is well-known for his mystery series, which I haven't read, but he has also written a few stand-alone books such as This Tender Land and Ordinary Grace. After reading Ordinary Grace a few years ago, I had been looking forward to This Tender Land, which I luckily spotted on the Bestseller Express Shelf (7-day loan) and snagged at just the last moment, minutes before the library closed for the foreseeable future. 

There was a gentle hint of spirituality in the book which I really loved, not in-your-face preaching, but a searching sort of quest for the meaning of it all. A thread running through the novel that ties spirituality to the land really spoke to me.

A Quote from the Epilogue:

There is a river that runs through time and the universe, vast and inexplicable, a flow of spirit that is at the heart of all existence, and every molecule of our being is a part of it. And what is God but the whole of that river?

..........................

Perhaps the important truth I've learned across the whole of my life is that it's only when I yield to the river and embrace the journey that I find peace.

Highly Recommended!