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The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich

This book was recommended to me by my papaw

I read this book by checking out the ebook from the library and read it on Libby

I read The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse after several recommendations by my grandfather who sold it to me as "a woman who is bad at being a nun because she plays chopin too passionately but deeply loves jesus leaves the convent and gets caught in a flood and finds a dead priest with instructions to become the priest on a reservation and she says 'I can do that' and assumes his identity" This portrayal while 100% accurate made me envision an entirely different book than the one I read. This book was deeeeelicious and Louise Erdrich is a wonderful storyteller, like all well made books it's hard to describe what this one was about or what made it so phenomenal, but it had so many excellent elements that came together for a very tasty reading experience.

One of the most unique and good parts of the story is the inclusion of conversation Ojibwe (since Little No Horse is a fictional conglomerate of elements of Aniishnaabeg land), especially because it was untranslated and used constantly in dialogue. This is not the first book I've read in which characters frequently speak ojibwemowin (Firekeeper's Daughter and Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley) and I have found it makes the setting very immersive, and it was fun recognizing words I knew like zhaaganaash and n'dawnis. By not translating the parts of the book that aren't in english, the reader experiences the same language immersion as the main character, and the only definitions or context given are part of the dialogue, much like being around people who speak a different language in real life. This book was so delightfully well written and I'd love to own a copy of it. All around recommended reading.