"Ice cream is the best. It's kinda like seeing Billy Joel perform live. Never disappoints."  Ted Lasso

I can’t stop quoting Ted. (Sam and I are reveling in Season 3 right now.) But I’ve got to add to coach’s list: Ice Cream’s the best, so is Billy Joel live, and William Kent Krueger novels (even the short ones). It’s no secret we girls have our favorites around here: Maggie O’Farrell, Anna Quindlen, Andy Weir, Jane, Anthony Doerr, Anne Patchett, Doig, and of course Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land’s brainchild, William Kent Krueger. Who am I forgetting Rae? Boy howdy, we have a much longer list of artists who use words as their medium.

Krueger’s The Levee was hatched by his twenty-something self when he read Faulkner’s novella Old Man. Of course, the genius writer in embryo knew his story wasn’t quite right. Nearly half a century later, during a pandemic-inspired word hyperdrive, he dusted off and overhauled his draft for the third time. And readers are the richer for it. The setting is a 1927 devastating flood, compliments of the Mississippi River. The goal is to rescue a family trapped by the immense swell. The rescuers? A former priest/uncle and 3 convicts on loan from a nearby prison. As with all of Krueger’s books, this novella has substance—themes of love, pride, greed, and loyalty eddy around this propulsive story of man v. nature.  

P.S. This is only available as an original audiobook—so have yourselves a listen, lovers!

Posted by Tracy