The Master Butchers Singing Club - Softcover

Erdrich, Louise

4.06

25,037 ratings by Goodreads

9780007136384: The Master Butchers Singing Club

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007136382 ISBN 13: 9780007136384

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2010

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A powerful novel from one of the most celebrated American writers of her generation, and the winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 2012

In the quiet aftermath of WWI, Fidelis Waldvogel leaves behind his quiet German village, and sets out for America with his new wife Eva – the widow of his best friend, killed in action.

Finally settling in North Dakota, Fidelis works hard to build a business, a home for his family – and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. But his adventure into the New World truly begins when he encounters Delphine Watzka, a local woman whose origins are a mystery, even to her. Delphine meets Eva and is enchanted. She meets Fidelis and the ground trembles...

Spanning the decades from the Great War to the fifties, 'The Master Butchers Singing Club' is a gift to readers everywhere, unfolding its themes of love and death, lightness and gravity with the eloquent prose, sly humour, and depth of feeling that only a masterful writer can offer.

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Review:

'This novel is the work of a poet. The many voices are distinct, rhythmical and poignant ... ‘The Master Butchers Singing Club’ is the kind of story that goes a long way toward explaining the American Dream, its disasters and its triumphs. Louise Erdrich, with the combined blood of the Cree Indians and a man who fought for Germany, gives us a big novel that echoes the land of her birth' Bonnie Greer, Independent

‘A big novel, teeming with life and vivid characters ... Erdrich writes with exuberant urgency, warmth, generosity and a fluid, sensuous lyricism. Wonderful set pieces, sharp dialogue and rich images collude to allow a narrative that is determinedly earthbound soar and glide like a leaf on the wind' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

‘A substantial, beautifully composed, confident work of art ... Erdrich tells Fidelis’s story and that of his comic, shrewd, erotic lover Delphine with old-fashioned assurance and a light, witty touch. The result is both expansive in its reach and intimate in its intense focus’ Oprah Magazine

‘Erdrich's new novel is a master work ... It's a page-turner for thinking readers, the kind of book that'll make you late for work and keep you up all night' Minneapolis Star-Tribune

'The Master Butchers Singing Club can surely be cast as the most wrenching and wise of Erdrich's nine novels' Miami Herald

Synopsis:

A powerful new novel, a bestseller in the US, from one of the most celebrated American writers of her generation. 'Stepping off the RMS Mauretania into the harbour chaos of New York with a suitcase full of his father's miraculous smoked sausage, Fidelis was directed through the swirl of massed arrival...He spoke only the English that he had learned on the ship, words specific to his intent -- train, train station, west, best sausage, master butcher, work, money, land. His family's fortunes now lay solely with him. 'In the aftermath of WWI, Fidelis Waldvogel leaves behind his quiet German village and sets out for America with his new wife Eva -- the widow of his best friend, killed in action. Finally settling in the town of Argus in North Dakota, Fidelis works hard to build a business, a home for his family -- and a singing club consisting of the best voices in town. But Fidelis's adventure into the New World truly begins when he encounters Delphine Watzka...

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