EDITED BY →
DAVID CANFIELD @DAVIDCANFIELD97
Books
Can an ending make a book? Téa Obreht’s new
Western INLAND is the rare novel with a perfect
finish—and if you haven’t experienced it yet,
beware: We’re taking a close read of everything
through to the last page. BY DAVID CANFIELD
“SHE SAW IT ALL.” THE FOUR WORDS
that end Inland, the new novel by
Téa Obreht (The Tiger’s Wife), read
like the debris from a breathtaking
literary explosion. Over its course,
the book alternates with mythmak-
ing flair between the entire life of
Lurie, a wanted outlaw who adven-
tures around the American West,
and a day in the life of Nora, a fron-
tierswoman in the Arizona Territory
circa 1893. Their paths converge
in Inland’s finale, an abstract
masterpiece that distills everything
about these two characters into
montage—blurring past and future,
dead and living, pain and joy. The
impetus for it? A horde of ghosts, a
blind camel, and a drink of water.
So, spoilers. Rarely, a literary end-
ing comes along that feels too
perfect to limit to safe, vague praise.
SPOILER ALERT
104 SEPTEMBER 2019 EW ● COM ILLUSTRATION BY JUN CEN
