Pulitzer Prize winner Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, The Mighty Red, a captivating multigenerational tale set amid the 2008 financial crisis, begins with a frenzied proposal. Gary Geist, a wealthy and preternaturally lucky football player, asks Kismet Poe, his rebellious Ojibwe classmate, to marry him. This is much to the chagrin of Kismet’s superstitious truck-driver mom Crystal and her nerdy, homeschooled crush Hugo, who would also like to one day make her his bride, if only he could afford a car.