The Dig

October 1, 2022

Pulled from a bomb-gutted apartment in 1990s Sarajevo, siblings Antonia and Paul are raised by a prominent family of contractors in Thebes, MN, which Antonia escapes by attending law school. She had no intention of returning but unexpectedly accepts a promising job there, only to discover that her activist brother has disappeared and that her adoptive family is hiding some ugly secrets. From debuter Burt.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2023
A young lawyer haunted by war trauma struggles to balance family loyalty against personal ambition. It's 2014. We meet the protagonist of Burt's debut novel, Antonia King, as she chats with a wealthy Swedish airplane manufacturer in Minneapolis. He's in town to start a factory, and Antonia--fresh out of Harvard Law School but reluctantly drawn back to Minnesota, where she has roots--is trying to help a fancy law firm land a major client. She does. But it leads to escalating clashes with her family and revelations about her past. Originally from Sarajevo, Antonia lost her parents to Milosevic's genocide in the early 1990s, when she was 3. She and her brother, Paul, were adopted by two brothers from a small town in Minnesota, Christopher and Edward King. The orphaned siblings eventually end up living with Christopher, the rich owner of King Family Construction, and his family. Antonia promised to consider working for him after law school; he's furious when she chooses the Swedish CEO instead. When her activist brother, Paul, who lives in their small hometown's Somali community, goes missing after a violent protest at the site of their father's dream project--a glorified strip mall, the big dig of the title--Antonia agrees to help Christopher with damage control. She reunites with her tipsy adoptive mother, closeted gay brother, Instagram influencer sister, and an icky old flame with political clout--all while trying to quell a sex scandal for her new boss. Burt layers all of this on in a rapid-fire style and places Antonia in too many scenes with minor characters. The writing shines in the few moments of intimacy between people before Burt delivers a big reveal. But Antonia as a character fails to come to life even as she learns a real lesson about cutting the ties that bind. An original yet ultimately flat family drama.

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January 9, 2023
Burt restages Antigone with a story of two Bosnian orphans and their adoptive American family in her inspired debut. Christopher and Eddie King, two American brothers who are in Sarajevo to build hotels when the siege begins in 1993, find Mujo and Andela in the rubble of a bombed-out building. The Kings adopt the children, rename them Paul and Antonia, and take them home to Thebes, Minn. Shortly after, Eddie dies from an opioid overdose. In the children’s teen years, Paul becomes estranged from Christopher after dropping out of high school and devoting his life to antiwar activism. Now, in the present, Paul goes missing after protesting a construction project in Thebes spearheaded by Christopher’s company, that would displace the local Somalian community, and is wanted by the police for his role in a riot. Christopher, feeling betrayed by Paul, urges Antonia, now a lawyer in the Twin Cities, to convince Paul to turn himself in. Occasionally, Burt’s allusions to Sophocles are more clunky than clever (the Bosnian siblings’ school in Thebes is named Mount Olympus), but the work’s strength lies in the ways Burt complicates her archetypal characters, such as in her portrayal of Antonia’s loyalty to Paul. It adds up to an engaging family tragedy. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House.

February 3, 2023

It's 1993. In a bombed-out building in Sarajevo, three-year-old Andela and six-year-old Mujo cower near their dead mother. American brothers find them and take them back to Minnesota. One adopts them but disappears. The other raises them, a tyrant who drives the boy, Paul now, to flee at 14. The girl, now Toni, leaves for Harvard after high school vowing never to return, but in 2014, she's back as a newly hired lawyer at the hottest firm in the Twin Cities. She's put her past behind her, the traumatic first years, humiliations in high school, and her uncle's domineering ways, but it comes back to bite her. Paul's back too, organizing Somali refugees against the uncle, who plans to tear down their settlement to build a shopping mall. A protest goes sour, and Paul's on the run. Toni confronts problems with her job, uncle, the missing Paul, and a boyfriend she wants to forget. The novel is slow in buildup, with many flashbacks, and the denouement is deflating. A few issues raised along the way are left unresolved. VERDICT Burt's (My Father Married Your Mother) humdrum mystery never builds up enough steam to keep readers involved.--David Keymer

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.