ALTERNATE November 2025 Book Discussion: The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich

This is an alternative date for the monthly book discussion. Please sign up for only ONE book discussion date per month. This is an option for people who want a smaller group or cannot come on Sunday. The goal is to keep our book discussions to a manageable size so everyone has a chance to share their thoughts.

NOVEMBER 2025 BOOK DISCUSSION
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
Hosted by

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • A FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR FICTION

In this stunning novel, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances on ordinary people’s lives.

History is a flood. The mighty red . . .

In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding.

Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his.

Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He’s determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker.

Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels, and worries for the future, her daughter’s and her own.
Human time, deep time, Red River time, the half-life of herbicides and pesticides, and the elegance of time represented in fracking core samples from unimaginable depths, is set against the speed of climate change, the depletion of natural resources, and the sudden economic meltdown of 2008-2009.

As with every book this great modern master writes, The Mighty Red is about our tattered bond with the earth, and about love in all of its absurdity and splendor.