Ask a Bookseller: 'Night of the Living Rez'

In this week’s Ask a Bookseller, Beth Leonard of Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, Maine recommends the short story collection “Night of the Living Rez” by Morgan Talty, an author from Maine and a Penobscot Nation citizen.

The book is set in a Native community in Maine and follows characters through 12 interconnected short stories, which Leonard said reads more like a novel.

“The book really deals with issues of poverty, racism and, is quite moving and surprisingly funny,” Leonard said.

She says it’s Talty’s mix of serious topics and gallows humor that has her recommending the book to her customers.

“I tell them not to expect, you know, something, lighthearted and frivolous. That it has very dark and serious moments, but it also has, what I think they describe on the back of the book as searing humor,” Leonard said. “It's very moving and worth reading.”