Dr Apelles, Native American translator of Native American texts, lives a diligent existence. He works at a library and, in his free time, he works on his translations. One day he stumbles across an ancient manuscript only he can translate. What begins as a startling discovery quickly becomes a vital quest—to translate the document and to find love.
In this riveting mystery of letters David Treuer tells two love stories. One takes us deep into the ancient woods of mythology; the other along a labyrinthine archive with infinite corridors of unwanted books. In a novel that charts the progress of much loss against precious gains, Treuer asks to what lengths we will go to experience the ‘terrible pleasure’ of love.
“This book describes itself as ‘a love story,’ and it is certainly
that, but its ambitions are larger than usual: as a novel, it has
elements of satire (of Hemingway, among others), metaphysical whodunit,
and urban legend. The miracle of this book is that it makes two
seemingly incompatible stories into a hybrid, a story about stories of
death and rebirth. Formally daring, The Translation of Dr Apelles may be David Treuer’s best book; it is certainly his most courageous.” —Charles Baxter
