Karen Russell’s latest novel, THE ANTIDOTE, is a marvel of midwestern magical realism. It drops readers into 1935 Uz, Nebraska, at the height of the Dust Bowl, as residents struggle against devastating natural forces, a serial killer, revisionist history and their own lost secrets. With the coming together of a fierce young athlete, her caring uncle, a prairie witch and a government photographer, not to mention a wronged cat and a sentient scarecrow, the shameful past and the difficult present in Uz just might create a better future.

When teenager Dell Oletsky’s mother, Lada, is brutally murdered, she goes to live with her bachelor uncle, Harp. Harp’s wheat fields, like all of his neighbors’, have been devastated by the drought conditions. The two don’t see eye to eye on everything but live well together, united not in the least by their grief over Lada. Dell is a basketball hotshot and the captain of a team whose members are dwindling as people flee Uz for more prosperous locales.

"Russell’s magic helps tell the story without detracting from the realism she is presenting.... This is a heartfelt, sometimes astonishing, and often wondrous novel of family, memory, responsibility, redemption and hope."

Still, the court is where Dell feels happiest. There she can work out her frustrations, and she is falling in love with her teammate, Valeria. To make some money, Dell turns to the prairie witch known as the Antidote, a “vault” who can take confessions, leaving an empty spot in one’s memory. The Antidote lives a modest life, haunted by the loss of her son immediately after he was born, and abused by the violent and crooked town sheriff. She longs to find her now adult son, along with peace, contentment and justice.

As Dell works to get her team to the championships, her uncle is beginning to notice some strange but not entirely unwelcome changes on his farm. Are his fields growing green again? If so, by what source? And what is the unusual light in the sky? Meanwhile, before the arrival of a New Deal Resettlement Administration photographer named Cleo Allfrey in Uz, she finds her dream camera in a pawn shop. The pristine Graflex doesn’t capture the images of the West that Cleo is hired to take. Instead, as she develops them, they seem to capture either the past or the future of the places she photographs. With these images, she is able to see the rich past of Nebraska, including the all but decimated Pawnee culture, as well as what she surmises are various futures of potential plenty and peace that may be realized.

In the aftermath of the Black Sunday dust storm, these four come together on Harp’s farm, joined eventually by the cat and overseen by the Scarecrow. They plan to expose the sheriff, free a wrongly accused man, and show everyone in Uz the truths behind the lies they were told about the land on which they live. This reckoning may not be what finally brings the flooding rains, but the magic in the book seems to suggest a connection.

THE ANTIDOTE is compelling, thoughtful, provocative and entertaining. Russell’s magic helps tell the story without detracting from the realism she is presenting. This includes America’s bloody and horrific treatment of indigenous people as the land was “settled,” and how the abuse and murder of women have never been an issue of great legal concern. All the main characters get their own POV chapters, and each voice is distinct and well crafted. Their individual backstories are just as interesting as the drama that unfolds in the story’s present.

This is a heartfelt, sometimes astonishing, and often wondrous novel of family, memory, responsibility, redemption and hope.