Work Song by Ivan Doig

Equal parts opportunist and intellectual, Morgan (Morrie) Llewellyn was the charismactic teacher featured in Doig’s bestseller The Whistling Season. In this sequel of sorts, he has landed a job as a librarian in the mining town of Butte, the copper-mining capitol of the world just after World War I. Although a dashing bachelor, Morrie’s checkered past keeps him single and wondering if he is “destined, around women, always to be a stand-in for better men”.

The very distinct immigrant populations who work in the mines – Welsh, Finnish, Irish, and Chinese – have joined together in an uneasy alliance to battle the company for higher wages and safer working conditions. Strikes are the weapon of choice, just as they are in the rest of the country where labor unions are gaining strength in other industries. Brute force is the mining company’s response and Morrie’s bookkeeping expertise is needed by the miners to prove their case. But even more than that, they need his erudite background to help them write a song they can rally behind.

Colorful, fully-drawn characters and settings are Doig’s particular strength as a writer. This tale is a lively portrait of the miners’ hard lives and the vivid differences between the immigrant communities. The many fans of Whistling Season will rejoice to find a new book continuing Morrie’s story.

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Recommended by Sarah Redman