Undiscovered Country

by: Lin Enger

Published by: Little Brown & Company

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Lin, brother of writer Leif Enger, has produced a stunning first novel. Set in rural Minnesota, in the town of Battlepoint, Undiscovered Country opens when, while hunting, a wound from a gunshot kills mayor and restaurant owner Harold Matson. His 17-year-old son, Jesse was in a tree stand nearby, and discovers the body. It appears to be self-inflicted, but Jesse cannot accept that verdict. He suspects that his uncle Clay, his father’s brother, has finally snapped and killed him.

Clay had always loved Jesse’s mother, and struggled living in the shadow of his successful and responsible brother. This conviction is exacerbated by Jesse’s visions of his father’s ghost, who has cryptic conversations with Jesse. The bleak and icy winter landscape is every bit as frozen as Jesse’s heart. He is angry with his mother, who dissolves into an inactive catatonic grief–closing the family restaurant, and not dealing with their money problems.

Eventually Jesse talks with Clay’s autistic brother-in-law Dwayne, who tells a tale of Clay taking a rifle from a closet the day that Harold was shot, and then later throwing something in the lake outside the farmhouse he lives in. Dwayne agrees to go to the sheriff with this story, but then disappears. Jesse tells the sheriff, and then they confront Clay, who has a plausible explanation; and Jesse’s resolve to take justice into his own hands hardens. Christine Montez, Jesse’s girlfriend, senses the way he is leaning, and tries to influence him. Jesse’s struggle with his fears and suspicions, his anger and his frustrations are skillfully rendered.

This modern Hamlet parable will chill you and capture your imagination as you struggle along with Jesse to find the right path.

Armchair Interviews says: Excellent storytelling, very sad, but well written.