📕 Title: The Pillagers’ Guide to Arctic Pianos
✏️ Author: Kendra Langford Shaw
📖 Genre: Literary Fiction
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫
📝 Mostly Third Person POV

🗓️ Publishing May 12, 2026

The Spahr family lives in the Arctic, on a fjord accessible only by kayak and float plane, in a landscape rapidly changing as glaciers melt and sea levels rise. They live off the grid selling pickled octopus and sea crops, barely scraping by. Then, one of their few neighbors dredges up a centuries-old piano, a priceless collectors’ item. A piano hunting frenzy seizes the territory and the Spahrs jump on the chance to improve their lives with the payout for such a prize.

REVIEW

Thank you Pantheon for the advance copy of this book.

I waa immediately intrigued by the title of this book and the way an antique piano is framed as this sort of white whale for the Spahr family, elusive and full of promise. The story spans generations, moving back and forth in time between the Spahr siblings, the homesteading Bloomers, and other characters. Though the book begins in first person perspective, most other chapters are written in third person.

This is a slower paced story but I greatly enjoyed the immersive depiction of life in the fjord; the details of how they acquired essentials, the food they ate, and the vivid imagery of the Arctic environment that made it easy to imagine Jubilation House and the surrounding area. Notably, the author grew up in Alaska and drew on her own lived experiences while writing this book which brings authenticity to the landscape and story.

The story examines the dynamics of a sibling trio and how their relationship changes and evolves as they grow up, the challenges that the homesteaders faced, and the bonds of chosen family. I grew so attached to the characters and there were multiple times I felt very emotional while reading. It’s a little dystopian as the characters live in a world deeply affected by climate change, demonstrating how the effects modify the landscape and community over time. This isn’t the type of book I’d normally pick up but I’m glad I did! This book definitely won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

Content Warning: Miscarriage, Infertility

Please note that any content warnings I provide for a book do not necessarily constitute an exhaustive or complete list of content that may be upsetting, triggering, or otherwise distressing. I encourage readers to seek out additional resources such as https://booktriggerwarnings.com/.