Lockdown in Literature, by The Editors of WLT

Lockdown in Literature, by The Editors of WLT Lit Lists robvollmar@ou.edu Mon, 03/20/2023 - 14:39 Photo by Jens Maes / Unsplash There has been plenty of handwringing among some over whether it’s too soon to write pandemic literature, but these five books answer that question with a firm no. Each is set in the lockdown days while being about so much more than the pandemic. Louise Erdrich The Sentence Harper, 2021 Louise Erdrich’s most recent novel begins on All Souls’ Day 2019 and ends on All Souls’ Day 2020. Set in Minneapolis, the characters are connected by the independent bookstore where some of them work, which is haunted by the store’s most annoying customer. It’s the early days of the pandemic, and the community is soon grieving George Floyd’s murder in a country that “crept along beneath a pall of sorrow.”     Catherine Ryan Howard 56 Days Blackstone, 2021 In this crime drama from Ireland, Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket line in Dublin and begin dating just as Covid-19 reaches Ireland. They soon move in together, and their isolation provides the setting for a mystery.         Elizabeth Strout Lucy by the Sea Random House, 2022 Lucy Barton leaves New York City and joins her ex-husband, William, in lockdown in Maine in Pulitzer Prize–winner Elizabeth Strout’s most recent novel. Strout has written earlier novels featuring Lucy Barton, and various other characters that come and go across the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2023-03-20 19:39:01 UTC ]

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