Post Rock Limestone Caryatids

Like most people, Maeve Wolf lives in a cubicle. Who needs anything else when you can live your life through the screens that fill every wall? Yet she longs for more, and her drive for real connection to other people takes her out of the cubicle, onto the vast, abandoned, open prairie of Kansas. Along the way, she meets religious proselytizers, itinerant musicians, the Sisters of the Star (a ladies’ service club), and other misfits. What really makes Creager Ireland’s first novel unusual is its injection of nature writing into a dystopian future, while exploring themes around community, birth politics, and the needs of children. It’s unconventional and off-trend, and she doesn’t care.