The Sentence

By: Louise Erdrich

Narrated by: Louise Erdrich

Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman's relentless errors.

Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention", must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning.

The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day 2019 and ends on All Souls' Day 2020. Its mystery and proliferating ghost stories during this one year propel a narrative as rich, emotional, and profound as anything Louise Erdrich has written.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Louise Erdrich (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Revelatory and compelling read

This is my first by this author, and will not be my last, although I do hope she doesn’t narrate all of her books. The only way I could get through this with the author narrating was to run it at 1.3 speed. She’s a wonderful writer, but in reading her own stuff it’s so clear that she treasures every word, every phrase, every notion because she reads way more slowly than necessary. It’s either that, or she has some kind of reading disability? In either case, whatever the reason, she really should not be reading her own material. There are wonderful narrators out there with a Native American background who would get everything right. That said, this is a really beautiful, often hilarious, often moving story, up to the minute in its details, profound and entertaining at once.

A lot to like, but...

I've loved other books of hers. This one was harder to get through & I don't recommend it if you're new to this author.

Wow! Just wow!

Don’t let the first few pages turn you off. It is an amazing story. After reading it, I am now going to listen to it with my husband while we travel. Thank you for the beautiful story.

terrific

I loved this book, vignettes of book store weird customers and palpable angst from pandemic.

Terrifically Written!

I really enjoyed this Author's style and depth of knowledge. It was an intriguing story.

What a rich experience!

Louise Erdrich was already my favorite author; now she is also my favorite narrator. It was so wonderful to have her voice with it’s beautiful interpretation of what she intended me (the reader) to know and feel when she wrote the words. I laughed, I learned and I LISTENED! Oh, did I listen!

I liked it

I liked the narration and speed, and although the ghost story part of the plot is minimal, the rest of it is entertaining and quite enjoyable. There are some really funny moments, and some encapsulation of the hot mess that 2020 was. Would recommend

Great book

Loved this book. Thanks it kept me interested. Want to read some of the books she talked about.

A masterpiece from one of our greatest modern storytellers

This book is a gift. I especially enjoyed the author’s beautiful & warm narration. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Another gem by Louise Erdrich

Based on a couple of reviews that said this novel wasn't up to Louise Erdrich's usual standard, I'd braced myself for disappointment. Entirely unnecessary! This is another amazing feat of storytelling and empathy building. Especially amazing I find is how soon after the current events (namely pandemic and the George Floyd murder) she got this written. I want to go back, listen to/read it again, both because there are many incredibly artful sentences and passages--artful in mysterious ways, not with embroidery/fancy language--and also to watch the depths unfurl now that I know the ending. (Plus I miss the characters already...)
Thank you, Louise, for your diligence and beauty. Also for your sensitive reading of the story. Somehow your novels always leave me hopeful despite their painting such vivid pictures of the horrors of human history and its consequences. Yes, definitely mysterious, how you do this; I suppose like life itself.
Highly, highly recommended!