Tommy Orange

Tommy Orange's wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle's death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American--grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism. Hailed as an instant classic, There There is at once poignant and unflinching, utterly contemporary and truly unforgettable.

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Pulitzer Prize-finalist Tommy Orange’s breakout best seller There There —winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, the John Leonard Prize, the American Book Award, and one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2018— Wandering Stars traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through to the shattering aftermath of Orvil Red Feather’s shooting in There There.Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.Oakland, 2018. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield is barely holding her family together after the shooting that nearly took the life of her nephew Orvil. From the moment he awakens in his hospital bed, Orvil begins compulsively googling school shootings on YouTube. He also becomes emotionally reliant on the prescription medications meant to ease his physical trauma. His younger brother, Lony, suffering from PTSD, is struggling to make sense of the carnage he witnessed at the shooting by secretly cutting himself and enacting blood rituals that he hopes will connect him to his Cheyenne heritage. Opal is equally adrift, experimenting with Ceremony and peyote, searching for a way to heal her wounded family.Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange once again delivers a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous, a book piercing in its poetry, sorrow, and rage—a masterful follow-up to his already-classic first novel, and a devastating indictment of America’s war on its own people.

Tommy Orange Series, Set of 2 Books. There There (9780525520375), Wandering Stars (9780593318256).

Colorado, 1864. Tras sobrevivir a la masacre de Sand Creek, en la que fueron asesinados alrededor de 200 nativos norteamericanos, el joven Jude Star es trasladado a una prisión-fortaleza de Fort Marion, donde lo obligan a aprender inglés y a practicar el cristianismo por orden de Richard Henry Pratt, un carcelero evangélico que más adelante fundaría la Escuela Industrial India de Carlisle, una institución dedicada a erradicar la historia, la cultura y la identidad nativas. Una generación más tarde, el hijo de Star, Charles, acaba en esa misma escuela, donde es maltratado por el que fuera carcelero de su padre. Mientras sufre el duro trato de Pratt, Charles se refugia en los momentos que comparte con una joven compañera de estudios, Opal Viola, y juntos imaginan un futuro lejos de la violencia institucional que persigue a sus familias.Oakland, 2018. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield intenta mantener unida a su familia tras un suceso que cambia el devenir de todos sus miembros. Su sobrino nieto, Orvil, sobrevive a un tiroteo, pero al despertar en el hospital empieza a buscar compulsivamente videos sobre tiroteos escolares en YouTube y a desarrollar una dependencia de los analgésicos. Su hermano pequeño, Lony, que también estuvo presente, sufre trastorno de estrés postraumático y, para intentar darle sentido a lo que vivió, se corta en secreto y realiza rituales de sangre esperando que lo conecten con su legado cheyene. Opal, que también se encuentra perdida, experimenta con las ceremonias y el peyote en busca de una forma de curar las heridas de su familia.