The Master Butcher's Singing Club

The Master Butcher's Singing Club by Louise Erdrich

Another great choice for a cottage summer read as it is set in bleakly beautiful North Dakota, just south of my Manitoba destination.  Fidelis Waldvogel was a sniper with the German Army during World War One, marries the pregnant fiancee of his dead best friend and along with a set of butchers knives immigrates to America.  Like many immigrants of the day, he was headed for the West Coast but was unable to afford passage any further west than Argus North Dakota. He finds unexpected happiness and success with the Butcher Shop he runs with his wife Eva and their growing brood.  Delphine Watzka returns to her hometown leaving behind a job as a human table for a balancing act, finding work and friendship with Eva while wrestling with an unsolved murder involving her father as well as her mysterious origins. A wonderfully lyrical novel and autobiographic of Erdrich's paternal German Grandfather.  Indeed, the hardcover  cover of the novel pictures him in full butchers regalia.