Poor Deer

A Novel

By: Claire Oshetsky

Narrated by: Sophie Amoss

A wondrous, tender novel about a young girl grappling with her role in a tragic loss—and attempting to reshape the narrative of her life—from PEN/Faulkner Award nominee Claire Oshetsky

Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died.

No one blames Margaret. Not in so many words. Her mother insists to everyone who will listen that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of tragedy, Margaret wills herself to forget these unbearable memories, replacing them with imagined stories full of faith and magic—that always end happily.

Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces the truth about her past and atones for her role in Agnes’s death.

Heartrending, hopeful, and boldly imagined, Poor Deer explores the journey toward understanding the children we once were and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of life’s most difficult moments.

©2024 Claire Oshetsky (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Great narration

The voice and description of Poor Deer is utterly creepy! It's a haunted tale.

The writing is superb

I loved the mixture of realism and imagination. It made for a sad, tender and utterly original novel. This is a writer to watch.

Self Forgiveness

This is an emotionally fraught story and was rather difficult for me to listen to. It’s about how we assign blame to ourselves for a tragedy, even though as a very young child it was beyond our capability to analyze and conclude that we are not at fault. How we will naturally internalize and take on blame after being made the scapegoat due to others’ grief and their need to assign blame. How we make up a voice, a presence, a constant companion who cruelly accuses us of blame and comes to convince us of our wickedness. Of making up stories for a future we can’t possibly foretell. How out of habit we still can’t forgive ourselves. Of carrying a terrible and heavy burden, undeserved.

Poetry

This book drew me in with the most lovely poetic language and beautiful but eerie imagery. The feelings evoked by this tale of guilt, self flagellation, self protection and discovering oneself after a traumatic childhood event, were both touching and curious.

I can’t imagine anyone performing this book better than Sophie Amoss. She captured every character’s attitude and revealed their inner workings so deftly. Her voice was mesmerizing and a little spooky as Poor Deer. We felt the burden that Margaret felt of being haunted by her and chastised throughout her life by Poor Deer.

If you’ve ever felt grief or guilt, this a whisper in your ear you should hear.

Stunning

Utterly brilliant. Spellbinding- I never say that- this is truly one of a kind. Highly recommended.