Book Review: The Wind in His Heart

Reading Charles de Lint's latest novel, The Wind in His Heart, I was struck by how much of the story involved people feeling trapped in their own lives, and the things they do to change.

The book focuses on a number of main characters: Thomas Corn Eyes, a young man who feels shoe-horned into becoming a shaman for his people, Steve, a hermit who thinks he has long escaped his past, Sadie, a teenager abandoned by her foster father in the middle of a desert, and Leah, a journalist who thinks she may have just found the biggest story of her career.  

As compared to his Newford novels (which do get a shout out here) and his more recent Wilding YA series (which also have a blink-and-you'll-miss-it note), The Wind in His Heart has de Lint masterfully balancing multiple characters and storylines against an amazing background of life on an American reservation as well as journeying into a strange otherworld.

What I've always loved best about de Lint's work is the way he matches regular folk with the fantastic and examines how they deal with finding out their world is now much bigger than they had ever imagined.  The mix of real-world concerns with issues involving spirits, witches, shapecahngers and others bring both into sharp contrast.

The Wind in His Heart marks my last de Lint novel for now, I've been reading his his books at the rate of one a month since March of 2014 and have thoroughly enjoyed every one of them.  Now, like all the other de Lint fans out there, I've just got to sit and wait until he releases his next story.