I Cheerfully Refuse

‘A rare, remarkable book to be kept and reread - for its beauty of language, its gentle wisdom and its steady, unflagging hope’ ― Minneapolis Star Tribune‘Enger casts this adventure as an Orphean quest, but once Rainy takes on a young sidekick who’s also on the lam, the enterprise feels like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reconceived by Cormac McCarthy’ – Ron Charles ― Washington Post ‘As readable as anything [Enger] has written, [I Cheerfully Refuse] refreshingly concerns itself less with the miraculous than with what is right before our eyes, even when we want to look away’ ― Wall Street Journal ‘An unusual and meaningful surprise awaits readers of Enger’s latest…[his] retelling of Orpheus (who went to the underworld to rescue his wife) contains the authentic hope of a born optimist’ ― Los Angeles Times ‘The transcendent latest from Enger (Peace Like a River) is at once a dystopian love story, a nautical adventure and a meditation on loss, kindness and natural beauty … This captivating narrative brims with hope’ ― Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Leif Enger grew up in Osakis, Minnesota, and worked as a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio before writing his bestselling debut novel Peace Like a River. His subsequent novels So Brave, Young and Handsome and Virgil Wander attracted numerous accolades. He lives with his wife in Duluth, Minnesota.