I Cheerfully Refuse [J0303]

2025 PB in nice clean condition. Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Like a River which sold over a million copies and captured readers' hearts around the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author's accomplished, resonant body of work. Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. Rainy, an endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs and remote islands of the inland sea. Encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, Rainy finds on land an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, crumbled infrastructure and a lawless society. Amidst the Gulliver-like challenges of life at sea and no safe landings, Rainy is lifted by physical beauty, surprising humor, generous strangers, and an unexpected companion in a young girl who comes aboard. And as his innate guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy's private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his strengthening wake. I Cheerfully Refuse epitomizes the "musical, sometimes magical and deeply satisfying kind of storytelling" (Los Angeles Times) for which Leif Enger is cherished. A rollicking narrative in the most evocative of settings, this latest novel is a symphony against despair and a rallying cry for the future.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "A haunting, sad, yet ultimately hopeful story set on lake superior in near-future of dystopian proportions. After a couple take in a tortured vagrant they are repaid with disaster and this sparks a harried and troubled journey."; "With Leif Enger books, you always know you will get amazing writing and characters who will live in your hearts and minds forever. I Cheerfully Refuse did not disappoint."; "Here for the Great Lakes apocalypse novel! However, the author was recommended to me and I didn't read the synopsis before beginning, so realizing the setting is dystopian Great Lakes rather than present day took a moment. Then it clicked and I couldn't put it down, I kept checking my map to understand where along Lake Superior we were sailing with Rainey."