A family’s longstanding contract with their ancestral land unravels in Kay Chronister’s newest novel, The Bog Wife. Charlie, Eda, Wenna, Percy, and Nora are preparing to inherit their family’s cranberry bog through a ritual that generations of Haddesley children before them have performed; they will feed their dying father to the bog, then accept the new matriarch that emerges from its depths. The eldest son will marry the bog wife and continue the family line, along with the family’s ancient compact with the land that nurtures them: “Always the bog has belonged to us and we to it.” However, when the time comes and the children feed their father’s body to the bog, a bog wife does not appear. 

This simple mishap calls everything into question, including the strange disappearance of their mother, the last bog wife that came from the land. In the year that follows their father’s death, each of the Haddesley children scrutinize the past while frantically attempting to carve out a future for themselves. While a few of them attempt to renew the covenant with the bog using extreme measures, others start to wonder what would happen if they left it. Riveting, haunting, and gorgeous, The Bog Wife is a novel about the cycles of life and breaking tradition.

I absolutely loved The Bog Wife! You can read my full review on Southern Review of Books!