Future Home of the Living God: A Novel

I’m a fan of Louise Erdrich and even took a college course devoted to her body of work, so I was really excited about this book. I was intrigued by its premise, as it’s a very different kind of story from anything else she’s written. Unfortunately, I disliked this book so much I couldn’t even finish it - I found it confusing and boring, with a storyline that never really seems to get off the ground. Erdrich is a great writer, but this book is a rare misstep for her. The characters in this book are flat and unengaging, which is odd considering that deft characterization is usually one of Erdrich’s greatest strengths. There’s a lot of potential for an interesting story here, but unfortunately it goes mostly unrealized.

This book is the perfect example of why you sometimes need to give a book a little more than fifty pages to work its magic.

The story opens with the world going to hell in a handbasket but it’s ever so subtle. Parts of the world are okay but some parts have discovered a problem with how babies are developing in the womb. Although the markets still have food available and many seem to notice little in the way of change, there is an uncomfortable need to grab what you can and go.

Cedar, watching all of this unfold on the news is in a delicate situation. She’s pregnant and she’s beginning to realize that pregnant woman are being taken in for “examination” and it’s during this point in the story that I suddenly realized that some of the babies in question have reverted to their original state of primate. Erdrich never once comes out and says it but in between the lines, you know what’s going on.

The story revolves around Cedar, her birth mother and her adopted mother and how all three of them play a role in her survival. As the government closes in, they are forced to hide in order to protect the baby and in doing so, become part of a larger movement to save these women and their babies.

This was a suspenseful read with some interesting supporting characters. Once the story got going, I had a really hard time putting the book down. I HAD to know how it all turned out and anytime someone steps in to control a woman’s body, you can bet that there’s plenty of content to discuss.

If you’ve read Erdrich before you’ll recognize her style right away but this book will also remind you of The Handmaid’s Tale and Brave New World.

This would make an excellent book club read.

”You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they pick's the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.”
-- “Teach Your Children” – lyrics by Graham Nash

August 7

“When I tell you that my white name is Cedar Hawk Songmaker and that I am the adopted child of Minneapolis liberals, and that when I went looking for my Ojibwe parents and found that I was born Mary Potts I hid the knowledge, maybe you’ll understand. Or not. I’ll write this anyway, because ever since last week things have changed. Apparently – I mean, nobody knows – our world is running backward. Or forward. Or maybe sideways, in a way as yet ungrasped.”

And so, at the age of twenty-six, Cedar begins her journal to her unborn child.

”Did I mention that I’m four months pregnant?
With you?”

Prior to this knowledge, Cedar had no interest in finding her birth parents; it is only now as she faces bringing a new life with her unknown medical background that she is driven to find them, to be prepared. But things have changed in these between-times, in this somewhat pre-apocalyptic period, pregnant women are being rounded up, and the hyper-vigilant government seems to know where you are at all times. Turns out Big Brother, or in this case, Mother has been watching.

Of course, they only want to help you, make sure you deliver a healthy baby and there are so many precautions one should take… of course, they feel that you should trust them to know what is best for you, for your unborn child.

Evolution has begun its own revolution, and the earth and its inhabitants are changing.

”I know we’ve come to the end of science. Human beings might be saved by science. It might happen, but I am quite sure even then there will be no true explanation. If evolution has reversed, we’ll never know why, any more than we know why it began. It is like consciousness. We can map the brain and parse out the origins of thoughts, even feelings. We can tell everything about the brain except why it exists. And why it thinks about itself. “

I loved the blending of the mystical, spiritual with Ojibwa customs, sprinkled with a little magical realism, a somewhat dystopian setting, loved this strong female central character, all the other characters she connected with, and the focus on the arrival of one babe yet to be born, as if in some way that babe was destined to save the world.

”…somewhere outside of the actual human experience of words spoken, words thought, there exists a language or perhaps a pre-language made up of words so unthinkably holy they cannot be said, much less known.”

Many thanks, once again, to the Public Library system, and the many Librarians that manage, organize and keep it running, for the loan of this book!

I've never been a big fan of Erdrich though she's undeniably an excellent writer. With Future Home of the Living God I've become a fan. This is a grim book and what I've often found objectionable in Erdrich's writing is her over emphasized political views strangely even as I often agree with her stance I object to being hit on the head repeatedly with it.

Future is a haunting story of a young woman caught in a grim future where women are reduced to criminals and brood mares. The portrayal of her relationship with her unborn child and her complicated interactions with her boyfriend and her extended family are well done an realistic in any situation but the chaos their lives have become make their connections more fraught. I didn't love how it was ended though it was in keeping with the theme and mood of the book. It's not as grueling as McCarthy's Road and it lacks the humor of Atwood's futuristic trilogy but it's definitely worth reading. I liked the quietness of her prose which conveyed an inevitability.

In a not-so-unfathomable world, the government regulates women's body and their reproduction as evolution appears to be doing going in reverse. Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God follows one woman's attempt to remain free from capture so she can have her child in peace.

As the world around her changes and unrest among people intensifies with the uncertainty of humanity's future, Cedar Songmaker internalizes the change in a very personal manner as she's among the people the government would like to round up: pregnant women. Before telling her adoptive parents about her pregnancy, Cedar feels compelled to find her birth mother and learn more about her to better inform herself on her and her child's origins. After meeting her birth mother, Cedar goes back home only to find that pregnant women are encouraged and/or forced to report to medical facilities to provide "appropriate" medical care. Having hidden for much of her pregnancy with hopes of keeping off the radar until her child is born, Cedar offers an experience on the martial law outside of the norm as she winds up getting detained, escaping with the help of her mother, and getting detained yet again before she gives birth, where her diary of experiences and thoughts ceases.

Written in the style of a diary for her child to read, this novel documents the fleeting thoughts Cedar has relating to her fetus and her sense of identity as she learns more about her birth mother. The narrative was slow to build toward the dystopia the world as devolved to - for much of the beginning, the world appears to be a reflection of contemporary America as Cedar seeks out her biological parents, which makes the appearance of the dystopian elements a bit jarring in contrast to the story's initial presentation. There wasn't enough details in building the world of the narrative to take the interesting concepts presented (reverse evolution is so intriguing!) into a realm where the situation can be fully realized and developed.

Erdrich takes a classically dystopian backdrop (society melting down into factions, who target a specific group—in this case, pregnant women—to capture, control and demonize) and infuses some of her classic motifs: American Indian culture vs. whites, paganism vs. Catholicism, and the mysteries among families, especially those that have mixed heritage. We follow Cedar, an Ojibwe woman who was adopted by a white couple. The novel starts with Cedar visiting her birth mother for the first time, soon after she has learned she herself is pregnant, and from that drama we soon enter the larger situation of society crumbling, evolution evidently working backward (an item stated in the book description but hard to appreciate in the novel itself) and pregnant women targeted for capture so their births can be...what? While Cedar’s perspective makes it hard to get answers, a clear choice by Erdrich to focus more on the development of Cedar, the characters around her tend to fade or become redundant. Erdrich’s own gorgeous style keeps this book salvageable rather than one to dump for other options, but as a whole this book didn’t grab me as the general situation promised.

There's an undercurrent of a tale told before, a woman who loves the parents that raised her dearly seeks out her birth family, motivated to action in part by her own pregnancy. She is the teller of this tale, and she is telling it to her unborn child.

Then there's the twist that moves this woman's tale into the dystopian category -- not only has evolution halted, it seems to be moving backward. And humans do not seem to fit into nature's plan. Pregnancy rates seem to be falling, maternal and infant mortality rates are climbing, and many of the babies that are born seem to be something other. In an early review note, I wrote that it is "a society in which wombs have been a commodity." It is hard to decide whether the natural events or man's reaction to them (which includes registries and efforts to corral pregnant women) are more disturbing.

3.5 stars. I found the concept and, in particular, the portrayal of how society might react in response to the unexpected events quite interesting. It is without question disturbing, but it is well-crafted. Erdich is certainly talented at her craft. Still, a lot of parts dragged which feels odd to say after the plot summary. I tired of the book. Also, I am not someone who needs a neat and tidy ending, in fact I prefer books that leave shades of grey and where the characters journey on after my "visit" to their world. But this book left too much unresolved for my taste. Also, there is an element of Native American spiritualism, which I did like but which also sometimes felt like it was from a totally different story/book.

(Review based on an advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review)

Thank you to Harper Collins for providing me with a free finished copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

In the same vein as The Power (Naomi Alderman) and The End We Start From (Megan Hunter), Future Home of the Living God tells the story of one woman trying to survive in the not so distant future. What is different about this future is not immediately apparent in the book, but we come to discover that babies are no longer evolving, but rather regressing genetically. Evolution has apparently reversed itself. The US is in chaos and pregnant women are being taken in as prisoners. For our main character, Cedar Hawk Songmaker, this is terrifying, as she is four months pregnant at the start of the novel. Future Home of the Living God tells Cedar's story, as she struggles to survive and hide in a world of chaos - all while trying to come to terms with her God and find herself along the way.

I adore dystopian novels and Future Home of the Living God definitely met my expectations. I felt personally connected to Cedar as she struggled to survive and love her growing baby, even as the baby caused her life to be much more difficult.

Cedar is a strong and independent protagonist, but I deeply appreciated that Louise Erdrich does not write a perfectly happy and easy story for Cedar to overcome. Cedar's endeavors during pregnancy are disturbing and the future that Erdrich envisions is chilling.

I will admit that I initially picked up Future Home of the Living God prior to its release in November, but put it down after only about 60 pages and didn't feel strongly pulled to pick it back up. It sat on my nightstand for months, only to be picked back up yesterday. Once I started again, I was quickly drawn into the narrative and I'm quite surprised that I didn't finish it the first time around. Thankfully, there are books that find us at the right time and I think this was my right time for Future Home of the Living God.

Future Home of the Living God was a plot driven novel for me, which is the type that I generally gravitate towards. That being said, Cedar goes through a lot of character development and so I think fans of more character-driven novels would still really enjoy this read.

My one complaint or difficulty that I had while reading Future Home of the Living God was that the reader was kept in the dark about much of what was happening. What caused evolution to reverse? How did they figure this out? Who is "Mother?" What is happening with the US government? What is happening in other countries? The reader is fairly blinded to much of what is going on with the exception of what is directly affecting Cedar. This could definitely be frustrating for me while reading the novel. Upon finishing, I'm not sure if this was done on purpose and if it helped or hurt the text for me. This is definitely a book I will continue to ponder.

Overall, I rate this 4/5 stars. I highly recommend this novel for fans of dystopians that feature strong female dominated plots - such as The Power or The End We Start From. I am no way comparing these stories, but rather believe that if you enjoyed the others mentioned, you will also enjoy Future Home of the Living God. If you didn't enjoy those? Still consider giving this one a chance, as it is a unique and terrifying view into what the future could hold.

Very good but of course bleak book about a woman who becomes pregnant just as life on earth starts to devolve back to lower forms. I imagine we're going to have a lot of "end of life" books since we're essentially in a mass extinction event now. I read another one, like this one, about a woman in a pivotal time of her life (hers is coming of age) just as the world ends. I'm not going to compare them, just recommend both this and The Age of Miracles.

Future Home is well written and has a number of interesting themes. Nature return lands to native populations, returns children to biological parents (some of that might rankle if you have adopted a child; it's not always sympathetic), returns frightened people to prayer, returns life to one of survival rather than cell phones and industry. Since our narrator is often shielded from the rest of the world by virtue of being indoors for her pregnancy, she doesn't know what's all going on, and sometimes I found that lack of information incredibly frustrating. Why, in the end of the world as we know it, with government decentralizing and falling apart and churches picking up that slack, would tiny spy drones and enormously-far-reaching and well-organized Big Brother spy agencies come into play? Who's watching? Who can still afford such a thing? All we're told is that the world and its rules keep changing, but that's not too satisfying, given that our government barely functions that well on a good day.

The last third went too far into Handmaid's Tale which is already on everybody's minds lately and already on so many other movies, shows, etc. As a woman I understand it's there as a woman's rights argument, but I do not want to read one more time in my entire life about women held in forced fertilization and birthing centers because it's too horrible, yet I find it everywhere anymore. If I'd known this one would go there, I wouldn't have picked it up, which would have been a shame because the writing is top notch, the suspense is great. the premise is interesting, and many of the characters are very memorable. Eddy, in particular. Cedar's biological Ojibwe grandmother has a great story that will stick with you as well.

I just wish Cedar had gotten more glimpses of what was going on. The premise is outstanding, but we only see tiny glimpses of evolution changing, mostly by what meals she's given to eat. At one point she sees a saber toothed cat outside her home. I wish we'd had more moments like that instead of verging into big, over-used Big Brother/Handmaid's Tale stuff. The book was so refreshing and original and kind of high brow before it got to all that.
Still highly recommend.

‘Apparently—I mean, nobody knows—our world is running backward. Or forward. Or maybe sideways, in a way as yet ungrasped.’

Cedar Hawk Songmaker is 26 years old and four months pregnant when she starts the diary which comes to us as ‘Future Home of the Living God’. Evolution is suddenly running backwards. Prehistoric animals and insects are appearing, and human genetics are also affected. Most foetuses are non-viable, and most pregnancies are fatal. The United States government appears to have collapsed, while the Church of the New Constitution has taken over. Pregnant women are collected and imprisoned as the Church seeks control over the few normal babies born.

Cedar and the reader alike can only wonder about what has caused evolution to reverse and about what is happening in government. There are rumours and there are possibilities, but the constant is uncertainty: nobody knows exactly what is happening.
Cedar writes of what she sees and feels, of her journey to learn more about her birth parents, of her attempts to avoid incarceration. Cedar is part Ojibwe Indian but was raised by adoptive parents in Minneapolis. Society is in melt-down, but we can only view it through Cedar’s eyes. Who can she trust? And when she is betrayed, is escape still possible? Will the baby survive? Will Cedar?

As I read this novel, I kept thinking of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood (which I need to reread). Questions kept running through my mind about both the treatment of women and the treatment of Native Americans, about environmental disasters and failures of government.

For me, what made this novel most unsettling was the fact that Cedar’s perspective (and hence our view) of this increasingly alien but still familiar world is so limited. I may not be able to identify with many of the characters, but I recognise some of them.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Award-winning novelist Louise Erdrich is nothing if not prolific. The author of more than a dozen books for adults as well as numerous titles for young people, she is also the owner of an independent bookstore in her native Minnesota. Now, in FUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD, Erdrich takes readers in what would appear, at first glance, to be a striking new direction into dystopian fiction. But her latest novel still maintains the strong sense of Native identity and connection to place and the land that have distinguished many of her prior works.

In 2017, especially, it’s probably impossible not to compare Erdrich’s new novel to that classic work of feminist dystopian fiction, Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE, which has been much in the popular mind of late. FUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD does share many characteristics with Atwood’s --- particularly the theocratic dystopian government (which, in Erdrich’s case, is called The Church of the New Constitution) and its fixation on controlling women’s reproduction. True to its moment, however, Erdrich’s apocalyptic crisis seems to be precipitated, at least in part, by climate change (the novel ends with a lovely and truly heartbreaking meditation on the increasing rarity of snowfall). Largely, though, the crisis at the center of the book is unexplained --- readers will likely feel as out of the loop as Cedar Hawk Songmaker, the narrator, who knows only that human evolution seems to be happening in reverse, that humans have begun devolving into earlier versions of themselves.

What this means for the human race is an open question; what it means for Cedar is something far more specific. She’s pregnant, though at the book’s opening, no one knows this. The novel is framed as a series of journal entries meant to be passed on to her unborn child, whom she addresses as “you” throughout the book. Cedar, who is of Native American heritage but was adopted by white parents, was raised in a liberal, affluent neighborhood of the Twin Cities. Now that she is expecting her own child, however, Cedar grows increasingly curious about her birth mother, and embarks on a journey to the reservation, where she discovers that her Native name is Mary Potts, quite a bit less romantic than her adoptive name of Cedar Songmaker. Cedar feels a kinship with her birth relatives, particularly with her birth mother’s new husband, who shares Cedar’s penchant for processing thoughts and feelings through writing.

By the time Cedar returns home from the reservation, societal conditions have deteriorated noticeably, and she begins to fear for the safety of herself and her unborn child. The new government has begun rounding up pregnant women, in search of those whose babies might not yet participate in the devolution process. Cedar, a devout Catholic who writes a faith-based magazine called Zeal, sees parallels everywhere between her predicament and the incarnation of Jesus. From her newly discovered birth name to a saint’s shrine to her baby’s due date (Christmas Day, naturally), signs and portents are everywhere, even as Cedar contends with the prosaic and even brutal realities of her new life. Friendships are hard won, long-time loyalties can’t be trusted entirely, and unimaginable situations --- including murder and one truly horrific scene involving childbirth in a subterranean cave --- must be dealt with.

Readers might not come away from FUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD with anything resembling hope, but they will have much to consider --- including one model for how to survive the unthinkable.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

In a world of governmental breakdown, wars, and natural disasters, winters without snow, the over expansion of American government, something--perhaps a virus-- has tampered with genomes to set off a cavalcade of reverse evolution.

In this world lives one twenty-six year old pregnant woman, Cedar, writing to her unborn child. After an ultrasound, the doctor tells her to flee and go into hiding. Congress has revitalized articles of the Patriot Act to round up pregnant women, searching medical data bases, considering it an 'issue of national security.'

Cedar decides to seek out her birth parents on an Ojibwa reservation. Her adoptive parents warn her about an impending state of emergency. Siri and GPS no longer work, the world is falling apart. But Cedar is determined.

As she nears the reservation she sees a billboard. "Endtime at Last! Are You Ready to Rapture?," and another that reads "Future Home of the Living God."

Cedar had turned to Catholicism for an extended family. She writes and publishes a magazine "of Catholic inquiry." Jesuit theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin thought evolution was bringing humanity to perfection. But all creation is devolving, backward, to prehistoric forms. Is God asleep at the wheel? Has God abandoned Earth? Will the written word die out, incomprehensible to whatever humanity is becoming? Is humanity losing its spark of the divine, their souls?

Cedar's birth father is nonplussed. "Indians have been adapting since before 1492 so I guess we'll keep adapting." Cedar counters, "But the world is going to pieces." "It's always going to pieces," Eddy replies.

Aware of the beauty of the vanishing 'now', haunted by an unknown future, Cedar must hide from the American Government, now the Church of the New Constitution, which is rounding up pregnant women, controlling who is bred and who is born, endeavoring to save humanity.

Louise Erdrich's novel The Future of the Living God is many things: an extended letter to an unborn child, the story of a woman seeking her family, a fable warning of the over-extension of governmental power, a warning of the consequences of tampering with nature. It is a theological reflection and speculative fiction. And it is the story of resistance and the fight for self-determination.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

A dystopian diary written to an unborn child in a time when the government has succeeded in controlling women’s reproductive rights and their results. Our narrator, Cedar Hawk Songmaker is 4 months pregnant and desperate to keep that fact hidden from those seeking control.

Cedar was adopted. She is of a long line of Mary Potts, but does not, obviously, go by that name. She is 26 when she drives up to meet her birth mother for the first time. She wants history. Hereditary, genetic, familial history. Life on the reservation is typical. Her mother, almost Mary Potts senior, and grandmother, actual Mary Potts senior kitten foot meeting her. Replacement Mary Potts (younger sister) attitudes in with a goth-Lolita persona. Then she meets stepfather, Eddy. A bi-polar intellectual with a PhD who is writing a book on why not to commit suicide. It’s almost surreal, were I not have read so many Sherman Alexie books. All in all, it is a nice meeting.

Once back home, with talk of apocalypse on the horizon, Cedar stocks up on necessities and adds cigarettes & booze to trade. When she goes for her first ultrasound, reality sets in. A kindly, attending doctor allows her to escape, warning her to tell no one she is pregnant and to hide.

News stations are being blocked or run by the government. Robotic broadcasts tell nothing, but give warnings as “people are out in the streets, demonstrating against not knowing what they should be demonstrating about.” There are mumblings of reverse creationism. That time has reached its end and will now roll backwards. No one is quite sure to what. After so many pages, it’s getting annoying. Cedar “knows” something is wrong with her baby, but how? One sonogram that showed nothing? She writes of her despair, yet divulges nothing. Nor does the author. Were this not our book club selection, I’d stop right here, page 68, and leave them all to muse over the peril no one knows exists. But I read on.

The child’s father, Phil, arrives with a warning to Cedar that they, the powers that be, are looking for her. She has not been able to reach her parents and a strange woman keeps appearing on her computer. Communications break down and public abductions of pregnant women are taking place. What newscasts there are, call for all pregnancies to admit themselves. For safety. But against what? Phil protects her as best he.

Animals begin to mutate. Supplies dwindle. People form communities. No one knows who is safe anymore.

Then they find her. She is alone when taken. They place her in a room with another pregnant woman who wasn’t alone, but irreversibly is now. And then she too is gone. Irreversibly. Happy pills and facade-faced nurses attend and restrict. But there are resisters. Her old mailman slips mail into her robe, an outlaw nurse works to free, and both sets of parents plot.

A harrowing series of events follow, such that I will not spoil your experiencing them. Cedar continues her journal to her unborn child. Always writing, a virtual escape.

I admit, this book scares me. Not so much the sci-fi aspect, but everything else. Every. Thing. Else.

Best line is from Cedar’s postman, Hiro, who was pivotal in her safety, when asked “How come you’ve looked after me?” he simply replies “You were on my route.”

Most endearing line is from Cedar to her unborn child. “I am your home

The world is falling apart. Evolution is going backward and total chaos approaches—but how did all this happen? Erdrich offers no clues.

Scene by scene, it’s a perfectly realistic story. Humans behave as usual: sometimes endearingly, sometimes not. But what galvanizes the story—the monumental collapse of genetics and biology—is never explained and never rings true. For me, this undermined the book. It seemed the author could not be bothered to show how the world had come to this state.

Because the end is close, the characters stockpile food, water, guns and gas. Yet everyone eats, and when they need to move around they somehow find a car, a working car with gas in the tank, and they’re off on the next adventure. Rather than some kind of magical realism, this seems another failure of the basic premise, which is always shaky and never earned.

That said, Erdrich still writes beautifully. Page by page, many passages drew me in.

I enjoyed Erdrich's The Round House and looked forward to another novel that educated me on Native American life. Instead, I found this book to be a rip off of The Handmaid's Tale, with a similar dystopian concept, but one that wasn't well explained. I was confused with hints of the overall theme plugged in here and there. The Native American storylines were thrown together and never became important to the story at all. I was left wondering why bother making this part of the book when it was so underveloped. Speaking of underdeveloped, the characters were flat. It's too bad because a story of a Native child being adopted by a white couple and the child seeking out her heritage before her own child was born could have been very interesting on it's own. Skip the stupid dystopian storyline and focus on and develop characters such as Cedar, Eddy and Sera.

interesting story but all the god talk really turned me off. Maybe it's because I wasn't raised religious. I found the first part of the book to be a total snore.

I won't bother telling you the plot outline, there's plenty of reviews for that.

Things get better in the book once there's some actual tension, but unlike most well thought out dystopian novels, this one didn't explain why the world was "going backwards" or what was even happening to make society collapse. The scientific principles mentioned briefly are not at all how science works, so if that's something that you care about, you'll have a hard time with this book.

It feels like a poorly done Masters of Fiction work that massively rips off all the great ideas of an Atwood novel and skimps on the charm, the background and unique ideas.

That's not to say this is a horrible book. I read it quickly once I got halfway through. I wish - since the author has said the book was written during the Bush era and deals with how crappy things got from then on - that she had actually taken time to describe and research more on the aspects of war, torture, and PTSD. It could've added to the novel. Instead, we have a these flashes of ideas, but none of them are really fleshed out.

And since the book is political in nature, why not talk more about taking back native land?

I feel like there could have been four other good plots added into this novel, or at the very least followed through on.

What we get is a bleak world, a bleak ending, some questions about humanity and our place on earth and bigger questions about our political systems.

This book desperately needed to be reworked, edited, left to gestate and worked on some more, edited and perhaps maybe then birthed out into the world for us to read.

Not quite a futuristic thriller and not exactly science fiction, this book is a story about how the world is ending. Evolution has begun a backward-sideways-askew tread, and ecosystems are beginning to witness changes on molecular levels. Throw in a dash of human panic and planning driven by crisis, and we’ve got a dystopia on our hands. As nature morphs into something beyond the capacity of knowledge, societal power begins to shift, as it often does in times of global instability. To this mess, add Cedar Songmaker, a sassy young woman who happens to be four months into a pregnancy. As she attempts to reconnect with the native roots of her biological family, she is forced to flee under threat of persecution when new religious and scientific governmental bodies begin to round up all viably pregnant or fertile females. As Cedar and her family navigate a new underground railroad, seeking out space for a peaceful delivery, Cedar must confront the fact that the biological structure of the world has changed, and that it is time to face a great unknown of what comes next.

Louise Erdich’s Future Home of the Living God reveals what faith requires of us when confronting our own mortality and spiritual relevance, and to this layer, it adds a context of social and political unrest and the balance of human rights. Cedar, as a protagonist, is a beautifully multi-faceted woman. As she seeks comfort in her biological mother Sweetie and her family on the reservation, she struggles to match it with her upbringing as the adoptee of a liberal, financially comfortable white family. Cedar remains cool, collected, and hopeful, even in the most trying of times, and she regularly declares her own agency over her body. Defiant and optimistic, she vows to be a compassionate mother, writing the novel as a letter to her unborn. She reflects on her family with grace and understanding, and strives to appreciate the sacrifice and giving nature of others. She speaks with a strong, spunky voice that is never less than enthralling. Her love and passion radiates through the pages, and I sense that Cedar is a true hero of femininity and love in a time of darkness and oppression.

The novel is told in a sophisticated, yet playful prose. The confusion of the apocalyptic events happening within the book string us along with a quiet, subtle suspense. This book is clear on its purpose: it is not a mystery, and there will be no answers to the big questions it presents. What is faith, in the face of evolution? What is the meaning of human life? These timeless mythologies are presented to us with artful symbolism, and the entire story seems to be a foreshadowing of reality if we, as a society, continue down certain trajectories. Erdich, with impressively creative story-telling, forces us to examine what happens when the forces of nature decide to revoke our right to exist, evolve, and adapt as we have for centuries.

As Erdich presents this world of the unknown, this expanse of mass confusion and spiritual panic, she is shy about giving us too many details. It is often stated that evolution has stopped, reversed, or skipped around altogether, and the ramifications of this is only briefly brought to our attention. Cedar and Phil watch their backyard as a “saber-toothy cat” jumps from the Minnesota forest , attacks a Labrador, and climbs up a tree to savor the carcass. Aside from a few exotic bird sightings and observations of new plant formations, this is the most action we see from the wild landscape that we are told is taking root. If a giant panther leaped into my backyard and ate a neighborhood pet, I would have a lot more to say about it than Cedar did. Erdich’s world-building is lean, at best, and in a dystopic setting, the devil is in the details. Similarly, I would’ve appreciated if more light was shed on the mysterious agencies that were so freely allowed to imprison and murder mass amounts of women with no check or balance. I was left with many questions about how power shifted into such malicious hands. The threats confronting Cedar and her family were somewhat questionable; as a reader, there was very little to be afraid of besides the looming uncertainties of biology.

Disclaimer: this review was incredibly hard to organize in my head. I had a lot of feelings with this novel, but mainly just a thirst to learn more! Erdrich could quite competently write an entire series with this premise. Despite the thin context surrounding the impending end of the world, Erdich delivers a beautiful story rooted deeply spiritual and personal ideas. It would be more rewarding to see many atmospheric choices and character decisions fleshed out, instead of to be taken at face value, but this story doesn’t have many flaws-only a few added details that would be clarifying. Cedar is a fiery protagonist, with many firm ideas blended together by her heritage. She stands by her beliefs and is unyielding in her hope. She promises the world to her unborn child, and she fights her hardest to deliver him forth into an questionable future. Her inner strength and unwavering belief in herself and in humanity keeps her spirit from dying out as she flees from her fear. Erdich’s novel may serve as a warning of what may come. Future of the Living God reads like a prequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, and although some readers may have posited otherwise, I believe that Erdich has spun an original story with a unique backbone, and that any comparisons to Margaret Atwood are only a sign of this story’s strength.

I can't quite say what bothered me about the book, but I read about 100 pages into it and it was a slog, I didn't look forward to reading another chapter, and only read it because I thought "wasn't I reading something?" and then find it at the top of my Kindle list. The main character was very passive, I think, so she wasn't sympathetic at all, and there wasn't really anything else that came up that was compelling either. The cataclysm was also strange, and in what I read there was so little information about it that I couldn't understand what the problem was that everyone was worried about. It's as if the author didn't want to spoil the surprise so much that she didn't release enough info to build the tension. I suspect whatever it was wasn't very interesting, though, and at some point I stopped caring.

A fascinating and disturbing near-term look into a dystopian future, when the world's life forms revert to earlier evolutionary forms. These forms appear to match the warmer environment of earlier earth. When these reversions affect human infants, national and local governments panic and make desperate efforts to prevent the birth of altered children. Normal children and their mothers are prized and bred in an attempt to counter the evolutionary ebb tide. This novel imagines the life of several pregnant women during this period. The uncertainty of their fate and the fate of mankind affects the pace and tone of the book, making the story unpleasant or repugnant at times, but the nightmare is worth contemplating.

I have tried to read some earlier books by Louise Erdrich, but they didn't hold my interest. I took a chance on this one, and I'm glad I did. What a great read, although pretty uncomfortable considering the current status of the world we live in. This book falls in there with the Handmaiden's Tale and many others, that are what I would call anti-utopian. Of course, this is not totally some off the wall projection of some dark future. Society and cultures mess with reproductive rights already, and this just extrapolates where that might go. I'll leave it at that, because you need to really read this. Unfortunately it's not quite as unbelievable as I wish it could be.

"The first thing that happens at the end of the world is that we don't know what is happening."

This is one of the best dystopian novels I've read in a while. One day, evolution stops. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar is a few months pregnant, putting her in constant danger. Pregnant women are wanted by the government, partly because they may be the last chance at human life as we know it, and partly because no one really knows how their babies will turn out.

Cedar chronicles each day in diary entries addressed to her unborn baby. In the beginning, before things become so dire, she is in the midst of seeking out her biological parents, who live on an Indian reservation in Minnesota. Having spent her whole life raised by white adoptive parents, she's finally ready for answers about where she came from.

There's something so realistic about how this book portrays the potential end of the world. Much of it is about Cedar trying to evade capture, but it's also more simply about her relationship with her family (biological and adoptive) and the father of her baby. (One of my favorite side characters is Eddy, her biological mother's husband, who is writing a 3,000-page book about why he hasn't kill himself.)

I absolutely loved this book. I often had no idea where it was going, so it constantly kept me on my toes. Cedar's narration is bleak, funny, bizarre and relatable. It's rare to find a book that's so emotionally AND intellectually stimulating. This was both. If you like literary dystopian fiction, don't miss it.

This is my first book by this author. I can see why she's well regarded and I believe has won awards. The writing is clearly done by a skilled writer. The story is interesting and it guided me along at a good pace, with me not knowing how it would go. I would definitely recommend this to someone who likes this sort of fiction: both literary and feminist dystopian. Before I read this book, I saw a Goodreads review that compared this to The Handmaid's Tale. I suppose I can kind of see that in a loose sort of way, but this is a much better book in both story and the writing itself.

Cedar Hawk Songmaker, aged 26, is an Ojibwe, adopted by a Minneapolis couple years ago. Now that she finds herself pregnant, she goes to visit her birth parents to find out more about her roots. But the journey is perilous. Cedar lives during a strange time in the history of man, one in which evolution has suddenly started going backwards. It is also a time when it has been made illegal to be pregnant. As Cedar struggles to carry her pregnancy to term, the reader is admitted entrance to her interior world and becomes familiar with the tender and overwhelming feelings a woman has toward her unborn child.

I love Lousie Erdrich’s books, and so I expected a lot from this newest book. However, she surpassed even my high expectations. This story is told as a journal Cedar is writing to her unborn child. The characters, especially Cedar, are very realistic and natural. As Cedar hides or fights for her baby, we feel her anguish, her fear. This is very well-written and truly makes the reader consider the awesome power of the woman and of her rights. I highly recommend this beautiful, yet frightening book. It is one of the best I have read all year!

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I love Louise Erdrich, but I was incredibly disappointed in this book. To me, this book seems like an unfinished work, or a work in progress. Nobody's perfect, so maybe Erdrich just had a difficult time with this project, which took some time for her to complete. If you can call it "complete." If you haven't read all of Louise Erdrich's other books, I would steer clear of this one until you've caught up with the rest of her backlist.

First of all, Margaret Atwood did it better ... leagues better. But, if you enjoy being dragged down into a miasmic pool of someone else's madness and rage, this is the novel for you. For me, a tapestry woven with crooked, misshapen corners and dissonant colors will never be suitable for framing. God, I miss Louise Erdrich.

What could be more dystopian than devolution, the idea that man has reverted to some more primitive state? In her novel titled, Future Home of the Living God, Louise Erdrich explores a society in which evolution has gone into reverse with dramatic consequences. Protagonist Cedar Hawk Songmaker is twenty-six years old and pregnant. Erdrich places her in conflict with society and on a journey toward community, love and self-determination.

Rating: Four-star (I like it)

I read reviews of Future Home before reading it. While some folks didn't like it, I did. I appreciated how Erdrich sets the context that the world is devolving but doesn't feel compelled to explain why or what exactly is happening. The story is all about the characters -- really how the main character thinks about what's happening and gets through it. The lyrical style of writing made the book more emotional.

This is an awful book. It's one more in a series of recent books in which gratingly annoying, unsympathetic characters engage in stupid dialog and make almost deliberately awful decisions in order to draw out the story and the page count. The dialog is atrocious, the main character unfeeling and inherently unreliable. There were several times I almost sent the book, in the manner of C.Hitchens, "windmilling across the room." So into this "windmill category" I place this book as well as The Great Alone and The Leavers. Where are the excellent editors and reviewers who should be putting the brakes on this schlock? Or have they taken Cedar's happy drug too? And may I have some please?

I felt there was good character development of the main character. However, I found the premise of the plot implausible and unrealistic. There were many points that lacked explanation and left the reader puzzled. The ending left me thinking, “I read this whole book for that?”

The story of Cedar and her baby journeying through a dystopian land is both terrifyingly possible, yet obviously fiction that at times I became anxious for Cedar's future before remembering this wasn't reality. That's the sign of a perfectly written dystopian novel, in my opinion. The topics and themes were HARD but given the choice, I'd still read it. The book club discussion was fascinating as well.

I was assigned to read this for my Women's Lit class. I'm usually open to assigned books, but I couldn't stand this one. Cedar had no personality, nor did any of the other characters. The story sets up an interesting premise with Cedar meeting her family and connecting with them during the apocalypse, but Cedar most of the story alone. It's wasted opportunity. It was a drag to read through Cedar's ramblings and I could barely understand what was going on.

This could almost be the prequel to "A Handmaid's Tale ". Reproduction is threatened, but life on earth is changing in uncertain and unpredictable ways.

This is the story of one woman and one pregnancy in this changing world as earth fights back against the insults we have heaped upon her.

Don't expect a happy ending, but do expect to keep turning the pages.

This book freaked me out on the same level as the handmaid’s tale. A horror story of evolution reversing and a literal round up of pregnant women. I don’t think I’ll ever want children after this book. It’s good, sometimes odd, you don’t know if everything she sees is real. I was so hoping for a different ending and I don’t even know how to cope with the entire book now. I’m just kind of in shock I guess.

This is a beautifully written book. Through a first-person narrative, the near future catastrophe reveals itself, especially relating to pregnant women. Though I’d like to know more of what was happening to society, it was not necessary to tell this specific story. The author is masterful at filling the scene with only what is necessary.

Truly a fascinating journey in an apocalyptic scenario. The style pulls you in and you are left with questions but so is every single person in the story. Everyone has to make sense of their limited access to knowledge but what you are given is intriguing. It’s a roller coaster and unpredictable. Truly a great read.

Upfront I must say that I have been a fan of Louise Erdrich’s books since reading “The Master Butcher’s Singing Club” many years ago. “Future Home Of The Living God” is quite a different book. My impression was of a well written, hopeless, dystopian nightmare. It will take a bit of time for my emotions about this novel to jell completely.

Future Home of a Living God is an unusual dystopian novel which I will keep. It makes you think. But that’s why Ms. Erdrich is a wonderful writer.

Very simply, it work on three levels: The overview - disintegration of society as we know it; the middle view - everyday reality and (3) the underview - devolution of living things. The first two are the essence of the novel. The third, devolution, is carried through a bit more haphazardly and at the novel's edges, not front and center. Yes, the examples of chickens and other animals and plants work, but they are sidebars, not the crux of the novel.

The people and society are the imposing guts herein. Explore and know Cedar Songmaker, four months pregnant when the ‘change’ becomes common knowledge. Society tumbles, people die, police forces and religion grow, a simpler society reforms in Minnesota and the central states on a steam and horse basis with electricity. Cedar is a prize to the new lords of the land, the ultra-religious and those wanting to keep, gain or hold onto power. She has a pre-change gestated and growing baby within her. She has her Native American and American parents, a confusing babble of voices and generations and those rising powers in the land. There are the beautiful "God scenes," the author’s understanding that while evolutionary change starts quickly, humans live a long time, so a form of society, beset by religion and… takes the land. Cedar and those like her are prizes to be caught, then kept for their little “packages.” Cedar and others like her are just trash to be discarded after birthing. There are many paths....

The mix of family, travels on the underground railroad, betrayals, hiding in fear in a burgeoning religious theocracy with its own versions of death and birth/death camps is powerful. Follow Cedar through the remaining months, then days, of her pregnancy. She grows huge, as does the baby. There are cross strains….. and, the ending.

I recommend this book as a four. As its ending approaches there are just too many loose threads left over in the multiple but integrated story lines. Go for it. You’ll find your own insights and enjoy.

I am normally someone who reads dystopian fiction and thinks, "Yeah, I have what it takes to survive in this world." Not in this case. This is one bleak novel. The world building is exquisitely done. It starts off recognizable and descends into hell, and Erdrich will trick you time and again into thinking justice or escape is around the corner, only to have your hopes dashed.

Hope is arguably a major character in the book. Just don't get too attached.

In so many of Louise Erdrich ' s books, there comes fulfillment, forgiveness, justice. As I turned the last pages, I dreaded coming to the end. A much different sort of completion. A few of us will choose to stay alive during the end-times, to witness. This book may be all the solace, all the inspiration we need.

... fill me with a rich and deepening melancholy. If I could taste this book, I think it would be burnt sugar, with a copper tang, not unpleasant and somehow familiar.

This novel, Future Home of the Living God, echoes stories from the ages, warnings pressing for our attention, pleading with our souls. Listen. Erdrich infuses her characters with wisdom and humanity that speaks directly to my heart.

I have read this, and The Round House, and I will read more.

I did not know that I would classify this novel as dystopian, but I do. It is a woman’s story, a mother’s story. It moved me, and tore my heart out, as these kinds of tales often do. It has surprises and old tales. The characters are, well, characters; even the predictable ones. A worthy read.

All the elements for something great are there, it just doesn't develop that far. I kept reading because there seemed to be promise of something special coming in the story but it didn't happen. Plot wise your done in the early pages of the novel, like an idea that is never fully flushed out.

I love this author...always beautifully written, interesting plot and characters. This one is poignant and scary and possible - which makes it even more frightening. Fantastic and very thought provoking. Save Mother Earth from those who would destroy her!

Erdrich's novel of a dystopian world in which religious zealots attempt to capture every pregnant woman in an attempt to save the future is both disturbing and intriguing. She writes an intelligent book that allows the reader to be emerged in a philosophical debate.

I'm a huge fan of the happy ending, and I didn't feel a huge sense of hope when this novel ended. It did make me very frustrated because I wanted to know what happened next, which I suppose if the mark of a good work of fiction. I really admire Louise's gift for language and the way that she phrases Cedar's thought.

I wanted to like this book so much. It was a huge page-turner, but like many other posters, I think it could've benefitted with a few more years of gestation. There was just too many loose ends (and I hated the ending) to make me give four stars. (What was the whole plot line with the postman about? with Mother?) I don't need everything tied up in a neat little bow but there were too many here to ignore. That said, it's been four days and I'm still haunted by the ending. It has beautiful prose - I just think bits of the story didn't hang together sufficiently for the reader to be satisfied.

A diary of a pregnant native woman in a dystopian future in Minnesota. This book reminded me of the Handmaids tale, although there are significant differences. I found it interesting and was real curious to see how it would end.

It is a dystopian novel and not too uplifting. and it very much reminded me of "The Handmaiden" The main character's introspection was actually the best part of the narrative and like the Handmaiden the ending left you unsatisfied as to the outcome.

Could this be our future? Erdrich’s way with words is mesmerizing as usual. The story, though is one of hopelessness. I felt uneasy during my entire read. I had to force myself to read the last page. I knew it would hurt.

I struggled with the writing style. Straightforward one section, and then the next would be flowery and poetic. The religious undertones were confusing. A mix of Catholic, pagan, and mother nature..

Was hoping for something positive in the story. The ending was uneventful and overall the book is depressing Was disappointed that each character seems to simply disappear and eventually not heard from again. As others state, there are shades of The Handmaid's Tale in the story.

Slow moving with stereotypical characters the book was an extreme disappointment with a cycle of three third-rate locale stories and an ending that seems like an afterthought. The inept intrusion of mysticism into the plot line was almost an afterthought jotted in the margins of the draft. Not worth the ride of mediocre drama better set to a tv soap opera.

This political tome about women’s rights, environmental disaster, prejudice, and domineering government is either recognition of the battle for freedom being fought in America today or a foretelling of one possible future. The parts that made reading awkward were also the parts that showed how dysfunctional society was.

I received this book through a Goodreads giveaway. Although encouraged, I was under no obligation to write a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

I would've given it one star, but since I read it all the way till the end I guess it merits 2. Definitely a shabby knock off of Handmaid's tale with a lot of ideas that made no sense or were underdeveloped. Not sure what she was trying to achieve with this book except to show that humans are ruining the earth and will receive retribution.

“Living God” is very well-written, with vivid descriptions, excellent character development and intellectual depth. The reasoning and plot wander a bit sometimes, but the book kept my attention throughout. The premise is not quite believable; however, one can forgive this because the book is so good. Without giving away too much, the story didn’t end the way I would have liked, but it was not not unsatisfying.

If you are Christian, I can almost guarantee you will be offended by this book. I sure was. Erdrich's villains are some bizarre outfit called the "Church of the New Constitution," but they don't resemble any Christians I know, especially since they're into artificial insemination and forced pregnancy. After I finished the book, I read an interview with Erdrich in which she slammed what she called "the religious right" -- and that explained a lot. No wonder that I, a pro-life Christian, felt such unease the whole time I was reading the book. It turns out that the author loathes people like me. The only reason I give this two stars, instead of just one, is that I like her prose style and her characters. It was absorbing, which is why I couldn't pull myself away from it and kept reading to the end. But when I finished it, I really wished I hadn't invested my valuable time, only to get punched in the face.

If I were Margaret Atwood, I would be flattered and angry. It's a knockoff and poorly developed Handmaiden's tale. I like her characters, and there are some differences. The similarities are just too glaring.

Eh,,, are we going to keep standing for good writers working old saws? Then, they are not good writers. They are tired political hacks. We've worked through feminism and futurism. No one realy knows. These views become pedantic and diatribe-driven when echoed.. ... Hope the store doesn't censor this review. Sometimes things can be more dangerous than government..