Inland

In Obreht's newest novel, she proves that the success she had with her debut (The Tiger's Wife) was no fluke. Her beautiful use of language perfectly captures the harsh, punishing experience of Arizona in the 1800s. This lovely, sad, and haunting book will stick with you for a very long time. Recommended By Leah C., Powells.com

The New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger's Wife returns with "a bracingly epic and imaginatively mythic journey across the American West in 1893, in which the lives of a former outlaw and a frontierswoman collide and intertwine" Entertainment Weekly 

In the lawless, drought-ridden lands of the Arizona Territory in 1893, two extraordinary lives collide. Nora is an unflinching frontierswoman awaiting the return of the men in her life — her husband, who has gone in search of water for the parched household, and her elder sons, who have vanished after an explosive argument. Nora is biding her time with her youngest son, who is convinced that a mysterious beast is stalking the land around their home.

Lurie is a former outlaw and a man haunted by ghosts. He sees lost souls who want something from him, and he finds reprieve from their longing in an unexpected relationship that inspires a momentous expedition across the West. The way in which Nora's and Lurie's stories intertwine is the surprise and suspense of this brilliant novel.

Mythical, lyrical, and sweeping in scope, Inland is grounded in true but little-known history. It showcases all of Téa Obreht's talents as a writer, as she subverts and reimagines the myths of the American West, making them entirely — and unforgettably — her own.

"...Obreht paints a colorful portrait of the Western landscape, populated by a rogue's gallery of memorable characters and saturated with spirits of the countless dead who attain a tangible presence, if only through the conversations they conduct in the minds of the characters whom they haunt. The novel's unforgettable finale, evocative and grimly symbolic, crystallizes its underlying themes of how inconsolable grief and unforgivable betrayal shape the circumstances that bind its characters to their fates."   Publishers Weekly

"A frontier tale [that] dazzles with camels and wolves and two characters who never quite meet . . . [Obreht] returns with a novel saturated in enough realism and magic to make the ghost of Gabriel García Márquez grin. . . . Will take your breath away." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Obreht brings her extraordinarily intricate worldview, psychological and social acuity, descriptive artistry, and shrewd, witty, and zestful storytelling to another provocative inquiry into the mysteries of place, nature, and human complexities." Booklist (Starred Review)

Téa Obreht's debut novel, The Tiger's Wife, won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction and was an international bestseller. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, and Zoetrope: All-Story, among many others. Originally from the former Yugoslavia, she now lives in New York with her husband and teaches at Hunter College.