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Louise Erdrich biography

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Louise Erdrich
Photo: Hilary Abe

Louise Erdrich

How to pronounce Louise Erdrich: er-drik (means rich earth)

Louise Erdrich Biography

Louise Erdrich is the author of fifteen novels as well as volumes of poetry, children's books, short stories, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her novel The Round House won the National Book Award for Fiction. The Plague of Doves won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and her debut novel, Love Medicine, was the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Erdrich has received the Library of Congress Prize in American Fiction, the prestigious PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.



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Interview

Louise Erdrich discusses The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, how she was able to develop a character that vacillates between the male and the female so organically, and many other thought-provoking elements.

Q. Your novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse is the story of Father Damien Modeste and it spans from 1912 to the present.
A.
1911 or 1912, yes. It then moves forward to nearly the present. But it also includes some history of characters and those histories occur before the turn of the last century. It spans the emotional and historical landscape of my previous books as well and, I hope, brings them into some sort of focus or sheds new light on some of the characters's secrets. And of course it brings one character, Father Damien, who was a minor contributor to the book Tracks, into his/her own.

 
Q. Everything in the novel -- from people to places to the very landscapes -- seems to exist between two extremes. Damien is Agnes. Leopolda is somewhere between sainthood and acts of cavalier cruelty. Even the bank robber is called The Actor. There is almost a Manichaean split between things. And rather than being an expose on hypocrisy, it's more that these are the necessary tools of survival in a way.
A.
I don't interpret what I write so it's interesting to hear it put in a way that makes it seem planned and intelligent. I write so much on instinct that I'm enthralled when ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Louise Erdrich at BookBrowse
The Sentence jacket The Night Watchman jacket Future Home of the Living God jacket LaRose jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Louise Erdrich but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Kaveh Akbar

    Kaveh Akbar

    Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell and Calling a Wolf a Wolf, in addition to a... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Sentence

    Try:
    Martyr!
    by Kaveh Akbar

  • Rumaan Alam

    Rumaan Alam

    Rumaan Alam is the author of Leave the World Behind, Rich and Pretty, and That Kind of Mother. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal,... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Future Home of the Living God

    Try:
    Leave the World Behind
    by Rumaan Alam

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