Duluth writer Leif Enger heads to Red Wing for Talking Volumes with 'I Cheerfully Refuse'

Leif Enger has been great at describing nature as far back as his debut novel, "Peace Like a River," in 2001. But it took moving within spitting distance of Lake Superior before he could put that great lake at the center of a book. The novelist's fourth book, "I Cheerfully Refuse," a near-future retelling of the Orpheus myt h that critic Laurie Hertzel called "stunning" in her review , is about musician Rainy and bookseller Lark, a married couple who live on the North Shore.

A series of disasters result in Rainy fleeing to the storm-tossed lake, with a young girl named Sol, in a rickety sailboat. Enger , who is 63, will discuss "I Cheerfully Refuse" with MPR's Kerri Miller at a Talking Volumes event in Red Wing June 4, where they'll be joined by singer and multi-instrumentalist Anna Graves as the musical guest. We spoke with Enger, who previously lived on a farm in Aitkin County, about big storms, being a slow writer and what makes Duluth residents crabby.

Q: You have lived in Duluth for about six years now. Do you and your wife Robin feel like full-fledged Duluthians? A: We do. People have been really neighborly and kind.

It's a wonderful place to live. We get awakened at three in the morning with the ships' horns. We live six or seven blocks off the water, up on the hillside.

If you go up to our attic, where my wife has her quilting studio, you can look out the window and catch a glimpse of the water. In the summer, you can't because there are too many leaves. Q: Presumably.