RaveSouthwest Review... a complex tale rooted deep in the myth of the Frontier, that imagined place at the edge of civilization. Inland reveals Obreht’s fascination with the history of the old West; she is a storyteller whose very writing of this novel sustains the idea of myths and magic, her writing often straddling the line between understanding and possession of the world she writes about. This movement between the two inclinations is reminiscent of the experience of immigration, reminiscent, in fact, of the fast-rising and presently relevant questions of the identity of America and the bigger \'West\' ... Gabriel García Márquez believed that surrealism comes from reality, and he would certainly be pleased with the way Obreht uses the very real world of the old West to create and explore strange situations that are both believable and recognizable ... Perhaps the most beautiful thing about this novel, at the end of it all, is the spirit of its characters, of the Wild West, of the author herself: a determination, a sense of slow and steady movement forward, despite the obstacles. A movement inland.
