THENEWYORKER,AUGUST19, 2019 59
Obreht defies genre conventions with an eclectic cast of characters, including camel drivers from the Mediterranean.
THE CRITICS
BOOKS
OFF INTO THE SUNSET
In “Inland,” Téa Obreht reimagines the Western.
BY FRANCISCO CANTÚ
ILLUSTRATION BY R. FRESSON
E
arly in “Inland,” Téa Obreht’s new
novel, we find the frontierswoman
Nora Lark in the drought-stricken Ar-
izona Territory, managing the fears of
her seven-year-old son, Toby, who has
discovered strange disturbances in the
scrubland surrounding their homestead.
The year is 1893. Toby has convinced
himself that the tracks he’s found be-
long to some large fantastical beast, while
Nora is certain the whole business is
simply a product of her son’s overactive
imagination. Soon Toby even claims to
have seen the beast: huge and skeletal,
with a ratty mane, folded wings on its
back, and a pungent stink.
“Inland” itself cuts an odd figure in
the Western landscape, and is a surpris-
ing follow-up to Obreht’s début novel,
“The Tiger’s Wife” (2011), which gar-
nered broad critical acclaim and sold
more than a million copies worldwide.
Obreht, born in the former Yugoslavia
in 1985, set “The Tiger’s Wife” in an un-
named Balkan country emerging from
war. As her protagonist recounted the
stories and legends told by her recently
