Desert Creatures

This stomach-roiling dystopian western from Chronister (Thin Places) follows Magdala, age nine, when she starts on her yearslong pilgrimage to Las Vegas, now a holy city housing the relics of a saint she hopes will cure her clubfoot. If The Canterbury Tales was set in future Sonoran and Mojave deserts, it might look a little like this, as Magdala, her father, and their companions tell stories to pass the time. Across the novel’s six sections, Magdala grows into a young adult and becomes hardened by her experiences with cruelty in the desert. Chronister offers little respite in what becomes an increasingly hopeless journey. The only real moment of kindness comes from the “cactus-sitters,” a group who meditate on top of cacti and are generous to travelers who stumble across them; the rest of this far-future world has devolved into an every person for themselves society and the barren environment only fuels the characters’ individualism. The result is challenging reading made all the more difficult by how plausible it feels as a model of the disastrous effects of climate change and scarcity. Readers who can stomach the unrelenting bleakness and depression will find plenty to hold their interest in Chronister’s strange and frightening vision. Agent: Laura Cameron, Transatlantic. (Nov.)