Louise Erdrich’s new novel, “The Sentence,” takes place in Minneapolis during the time of George Floyd’s death and the onset of COVID. Like the author herself, Louise owns Birchbark Books, a small and independent bookstore whose focus is primarily on Native writings, although the store does serve the needs of eclectic readers. 

The staff includes Tookie and Jackie, Tookie’s former teacher who kept her supplied with books during Tookie’s six-year prison term. Two former friends had set her up in a drug smuggling situation, and her arresting officer, tribal policeman Pollux, became her partner. They are living somewhat happily ever after when several things happen.

Pollux’ daughter Hetta appears toting a newborn named Jarvis, and that changes the entire atmosphere of relationships and the house itself. The father is not in residence, but gradually it appears that he may be the odd duck from the bookstore. 

Former difficult reader, dead and cremated, Flora returns to haunt the store and Tookie specifically. Don’t forget the uproar of the protests surrounding George Floyd’s murder, followed by the incoming plague.

The bookstore weathers the pandemic magnificently, due to renewed interest in matters race-based and indigenous. Flora steps up her mischief by attacking Tookie. And then the plague arrives at the house’s doorstep. 

I can’t tell you any more, but just know that the humor revolves around Tookie; she’s one of those characters to whom everything happens, both on a molecular scale and an epic one. Settle yourself in for an illuminating experience and don’t forget the title, because sentences are at the crux of this story.

Just have to throw in the mention of April being the month to celebrate poetry. Try some Amanda Gorman, the inauguration poet whose new books are in the Andover libraries, and do a little backtracking to look up “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Now who penned that?