The Wunderkind Novel, Two Decades Later

The heroine of Karen Russell’s new novel, The Antidote—her second—is a plucky teenage girl intent on excelling at a practice typically reserved for boys. This historical novel set in 1935 Nebraska also features a woman with the power to extract people’s memories and return them on request at a later date, a diverse team of good guys who are all possessed of a remarkably contemporary set of virtuous attitudes despite being indifferently educated Dust Bowl residents, and finally, as the big bad, an abusive sheriff with a mustache he stops just short of twirling. (There are also some evil nuns.) Oh, I imagine the more publishing-conversant readers of this description concluding, so it’s YA.