A review by geekwayne
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger

4.0

'Virgil Wander' by Leif Enger is his first novel in ten years. His first novel 'Peace Like a River' is one of my favorites.

Virgil Wander has survived a car crash into an icy lake when we meet him. He has some cognitive and physical limits. This makes it hard to run the small movie theater he owns. He takes in a roommate in Rune, a man who builds kites and ponders the mystery of his missing son. The small town is full of other unusual, but real, characters, all suffering their own version of tragedies.

Leif Enger has way of creating affably memorable characters. In previous books, characters have gone on journeys. In this book, the journey is more internal and the quirky hard luck town becomes a character of its own. Loving a place and the oddball characters that inhabit it are what happens to Virgil Wander. We don't get many hints about his life before the accident, but this book feels like the character is born anew with a chance to rebuild his world.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Grove Atlantic and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.