ASHES TO ASHES

In small-town Minnesota, three teenagers face challenges to body and spirit.

As Maltman’s fourth novel opens, the Lutheran residents of Andwhen, Minnesota, are discovering that the ashen crosses Pastor Breen marked on their foreheads at the start of Lent don’t wash off. Some believe this signifies a time of miracles, while 10th grader Basil Thorson takes it as inspiration to begin a fast in hopes that God will heal the physical and emotional wounds of his family. (His father was disabled in the process of saving Basil when he fell into the grain auger; his mother has been in a mental institution for years after having driven a car containing Basil and his little brother into the river.) Both Christian mysticism and Norse myth play a significant role in the unfolding plot; a purported 14th-century saga in verse is parceled out in eight “poetta fragments” between the prose chapters, one of which is narrated by a cow. If this sounds like a lot…it is. And that’s before the remains of a female Viking explorer turn up in a meadow. Six-foot-four, 200-plus pound, special-ed student Basil suffers from severe dyslexia and is taunted as “The Brute,” but fortunately finds respite in the friendship of Lukas Halvorsen and Morgan Breen, son of the sheriff and daughter of the pastor, respectively. “We are the weirdest people in this school,” says Lukas. “A gay, a goth, and a giant,” adds Morgan, who introduces Basil to audiobooks and recorded poetry, inspiring him to memorize and frequently quote from Gerard Manley Hopkins. Meanwhile, it’s March 2020, so another big problem will soon be added to the burden of grief, homophobia, divorcing parents, a high-pressure wrestling coach and more faced by the trio. Where does hope lie? As the cow puts it: “In each dark eye, a galaxy. In our dreaming, a flight to the moon. In our lowing, a memory of a world yet wild with summer. Our kingdom come. Come.” Some readers gladly will, thrilling to the heights and depths of all these impassioned goings-on; let the cynics roll their eyes in the peanut gallery.

People who say that “Andwhen is a place where nothing ever happens” will certainly have to rethink their position.