SUNRISE

The Great Plains serve as a site of mystery and revelation in the latest from the author of The Morningside (2024) and Inland (2019).

In 2024, a young woman named Nina tries to stay alive in the wilderness after the small plane her boyfriend is piloting crashes. She finds her way to the town of Sunrise. Empty of inhabitants, Sunrise offers little besides shelter and reading material—a photocopy of an old novel called An Incident at Greyrock, vintage newspaper clippings, and the manuscript of an unfinished novel called Sunrise. Both novels center around gunslinger, traveling performer, and erstwhile lawman Anton Vargas. The manuscript begins in 1902, when Vargas is returning to Sunrise after a long absence. He’s looking for a man known as Preacher. The point of view shifts from Nina to Vargas, and then again to Coll, an amateur historian preparing in 2003 to direct the annual reenactment of Vargas and the founding of Greyrock. All three of Obreht’s protagonists are compellingly crafted, and all three are driven by secrets, which the author reveals slowly. Stranded alone in the middle of nowhere, Nina begins to acknowledge truths about her boyfriend and their relationship that she usually avoids. Coll struggles to rewrite his own history as he protects the Anton Vargas legend. Meanwhile, the Sunrise manuscript presents a much more complex version of the local hero, one in which the man himself confronts his own ghosts. Obreht has created quite a challenge for herself here, and she delivers a virtuoso performance. In her hands, these three narratives aren’t just satisfying on their own. They illuminate each other in ways that are both elegant and emotionally deep.

An adventurous, rewarding novel from a writer who just gets better and better.