Emily Ruskovich

One hot August day a family drives to a mountain clearing to collect birch wood. Jenny, the mother, is in charge of lopping any small limbs off the logs with a hatchet. Wade, the father, does the stacking. The two daughters, June and May, aged nine and six, drink lemonade, swat away horseflies, bicker, sing snatches of songs as they while away the time. But then something unimaginably shocking happens, an act so extreme it will scatter the family in every different direction. In a story told from multiple perspectives and in razor-sharp prose, we gradually learn more about this act, and the way its violence, love and memory reverberate through the life of every character in Idaho.

A Novel

Idaho

Jenna

Finally getting around to reviewing Idaho by Emily Ruskovich! This book caught my eye a long time ago (when it was brand new) because of the gorgeous color, but I hadn’t heard ANYTHING (bad or good) about it, so I put off buying it for awhile. Eventually I caved and bought it anyway, and when I first posted it on Instagram, lots of people told me they loved it!

Idaho is about Anne and her husband Wade, and so much more than that. Wade has dementia. Ann is living with Wade in the homestead he built with his ex-wife Jenny, where they lived with their two daughters until (as the description says) something unimaginably shocking happens. Just a little bit of a warning, you find out what happens early on. This definitely isn’t a thriller. As Wade’s health and memory gets worse, Ann pieces together the story of his family. This book is told from multiple perspectives, including Anne’s and someone in prison with Jenny.

This book is a slow burn of feelings and I loved it. I felt like Ann was curious and relatable. The only thing I didn’t like is that to me, there was some confusion about what went down exactly or why something happened with Jenny. But, I think this was intentional.

The writing in this book is gorgeous and I will pick up anything Emily Ruskovich writes from here on out. I was totally emotionally invested... but this book is quiet. I don’t think I cried, but I did still feel like I was there with Ann. This book is definitely tense too... in a nuanced way.

I really loved this book, but I can see why some people weren’t entirely sold. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys books that are more of a slow opening into a character, instead of entirely plot driven. This was a 4-star read for me.

Moray Lyle McIntosh

On a hot autumn day a family - husband, wife and two young daughters - collects and chops wood. The normally of the heat, the mundane tasks and the routinely bickering siblings is shattered by violence so sudden and shocking that the family is blown apart. 

We see the event slowly come together in fragments. At the centre is Wade, whose memory is patchy and growing more unreliable with the onset of Alzheimer's. He is supported by his second wife, Annie, whose narrative gives an outsider's perspective on the fall-out of that terrible day. She pieces together the scattered pieces along with the reader as Ruskovich moves between different points of view, skipping backwards and forwards in time. 

It's an accomplished work about family and forgiveness and the split seconds that can change lives forever

A tale told from multiple perspectives traces the complicated relationship between Ann and Wade on a rugged landscape and how they came together in the aftermath of his first wife's imprisonment for a violent murder.

Jade Flynn

I've had this on my bookshelves for nearly two years now. This is a cookie-cutter example of I should've read it when I bought it. You could read Idaho for the prose itself and be blown away with the way Ruskovich writes, especially as this is her debut but it's also a deceptively deeply woven plot marketed as something simple. Ignore the blurb, it doesn't even scratch the surface of what this novel brings to the table. I can't work out if it's genius or idiotic marketing.

LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • A stunning debut novel about love and forgiveness, about the violence of memory and the equal violence of its loss—from O. Henry Prize–winning author Emily Ruskovich WINNER OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BOOK AWARD • WINNER OF THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BUZZFEED Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in northern Idaho, where they are bound together by more than love. With her husband’s memory fading, Ann attempts to piece together the truth of what happened to Wade’s first wife, Jenny, and to their daughters. In a story written in exquisite prose and told from multiple perspectives—including Ann, Wade, and Jenny, now in prison—we gradually learn of the mysterious and shocking act that fractured Wade and Jenny's lives, of the love and compassion that brought Ann and Wade together, and of the memories that reverberate through the lives of every character in Idaho. In a wild emotional and physical landscape, Wade’s past becomes the center of Ann’s imagination, as Ann becomes determined to understand the family she never knew—and to take responsibility for them, reassembling their lives, and her own. FINALIST FOR: International Dylan Thomas Prize • Edgar First Novel Award • Young Lions Fiction Award “You know you’re in masterly hands here. [Emily] Ruskovich’s language is itself a consolation, as she subtly posits the troubling thought that only decency can save us. . . . Ruskovich’s novel will remind many readers of the great Idaho novel, Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping. . . . [A] wrenching and beautiful book.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) “Sensuous, exquisitely crafted.”—The Wall Street Journal “The first thing you should know about Idaho, the shatteringly original debut by O. Henry Prize winner Emily Ruskovich, is that it upturns everything you think you know about story. . . . You could read Idaho just for the sheer beauty of the prose, the expert way Ruskovich makes everything strange and yet absolutely familiar.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Mesmerizing . . . [an] eerie story about what the heart is capable of fathoming and what the hand is capable of executing.”—Marie Claire “Idaho is a wonderful debut. Ruskovich knows how to build a page-turner from the opening paragraph.”—Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

Diana

Three years later and I still think about this... and I am still pining for a new book by the author. Idaho was beautifully written, intriguing, and heartbreaking. If you like complex family stories with dark themes combined with beautiful nature writing, look into this one.

Michael Hessling

Beautiful language, but after a while, it starts to plod. The novel is beautifully written, you can feel the author’s talent--I'm so jealous of debut novels written this well! But that dog chapter just spoiled it. Jeez.

I wonder if Ivy was actually June. The ages don't work, unless Ivy was lying about being two years younger than Eliot. But wouldn't that be the kicker?!

Winner of the International Dublin Literary Award One hot August day a family drives to a mountain clearing to collect birch wood. Jenny, the mother, is in charge of lopping any small limbs off the logs with a hatchet. Wade, the father, does the stacking. The two daughters, June and May, aged nine and six, drink lemonade, swat away horseflies, bicker, sing snatches of songs as they while away the time. But then something unimaginably shocking happens, an act so extreme it will scatter the family in every different direction. Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize

erin alise 

Daisy Marmion

Catherine Nicolai

Trinity Vorm

Mitz

Yasmin

Kris Lantheaume

Erin

Lexie 

Amy Thibodeau

Idaho, 1995. Par une chaude et insouciante journée d’août, Wade, Jenny et leurs deux petites filles, June et May, âgées de six et neuf ans, se rendent dans une clairière de montagne pour ramasser du bois. Se produit alors un drame inimaginable, qui détruit la famille à tout jamais. Neuf ans plus tard, Wade a refait sa vie avec Ann au milieu des paysages sauvages et âpres de l’Idaho. Mais tandis que la mémoire de son mari vacille, Ann devient peu à peu obsédée par le passé de Wade. Déterminée à comprendre cette famille qu’elle n’a jamais connue, elle s’efforce de reconstituer ce qui est arrivé à la première épouse de Wade et à leurs filles.

Idaho A Novel

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