THE BOG WIFE

Change comes for five eccentric siblings whose lives have been dictated by their patriarch’s devotion to an ancient compact.

In West Virginia, on the edge of a cranberry bog, five siblings are reminded of the family history by their father, Charles. One of their ancestors was thrown into the bog, survived, and "from that day onward, the bog was in him. When he rose from those depths, a woman rose with him to be his wife. You are bound now, she told him in her language, to the care of this land. Your sons’ marriages will reseal the compact between us." Charlie, Eda, Wenna, Nora, and Percy Haddesley are now preparing for the ritual. They will drop their father’s body into the bog, then wait for Charlie’s new wife to appear. Their mother is missing from the scene, and her disappearance is a mystery that adds suspense to the story. The setting is unique, the language evocative, and the characters well-drawn—the arrogant (and maybe malevolent, or simply ignorant) patriarch, the daughter who fled, the one who leads, the youngest two who share their own world, and the purported heir who doesn’t pass muster. Charlie, the next patriarch, may be infertile, and the tree trunk that injured him is still lodged in the roof of the house, leaving it exposed to the elements. The family seems to be hanging by a thread. Wenna, the Haddesley daughter who returns from married life in Illinois, provides a potent dose of reality and effective contrast between the family bubble and the “real world,” though not every fantastical element of the story proves false. The family’s connection to the earth is undeniable, and for some of them, necessary. As resources dwindle and everything falls apart, the need for change—for both the world and the humans who live in it—drives them to find their own ways to honor the compact.

Chronister effectively straddles fantasy and reality while exploring themes of stewardship and ties to the earth.