Wandering Stars
by Tommy Orange · 2024
Buy on AmazonA heart-rending story of a Native American community told through the generations Following the arc of two centuries, from the horrors of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 to the early 21st century, Wandering Stars is an indelible novel of America's war on its own people. It is also the tender, shattering story of several generations of a Native American family, searching for ways through displacement and pain, towards home and hope: a wondrous novel of poetry, music, rage and love, from one of the most astonishing voices of his generation.
Recommended by
The Audacious Book Club — Monthly Picks (2024–2026) · audacity.substack.com
"This novel follows multiple generations of a Cheyenne family from the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School to present-day Oakland, Calif., where we find some of the characters from Tommy Orange’s first book, There There. Trauma and addiction haunt every generation, but Orange gives each character a way to survive, and he creates one of my all-time-favorite matriarchs holding the family together. The resulting work combines rage and despair with wisdom, grace and love – a powerful cocktail that helped me confront the ongoing violence of settler colonialism."
NPR Books We Love — 2024 · apps.npr.org