“We had magic before the crows came. Before the rise of the great villages they so
roughly carved on the shores of our inland sea and named with words plucked from
our tongues—Chicago, Toronto, Milwaukee, Ottawa—we had our own great
villages on these same shores. And we understood our magic. We understood what
the orenda implied.”
These are the very first words you read in The Orenda. There is something menacing in the tone, something tragic.
I read The Orenda in October of 2013 and since that time, I have found it difficult to separate my love for this book from my objective responsibility to customers when recommending books for to them. Thankfully, this is the rare case that it doesn’t matter. I can comfortably say that The Orenda is the best book released in 2014. I can tentatively say that The Orenda is one of the best book ever released.
Okay, enough gushing.
The book takes place in 17th century America. It follows a missionary, a young girl, and a great war bearer. Joseph Boyden uses each of these expertly fleshed out characters to provide depth and clarity over the course of many years. More than a year removed from reading the book, I find myself thinking of them. I wanted more time between the pages of this world. I’ve read the book twice now, and I can’t wait to read it again this year.
If I seem to be rambling, it’s because I can talk about this book for the rest of my life and still have so much left to go over. Nothing is wasted in this novel. Every chapter, every page, every word is vital to the story being told. There is a candid cadence Boyden demonstrates that left me breathless. The real treat of this book lies in its ability to be a literary classic and a page-turner at the same time.
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden is the 2014 Lemuria Fiction Book of the Year.
Written by Andre
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