Where The Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson (Paperback)

Description

Fiction – Coming of Age – Indigenous\nPublished: 6\/4\/2019\n2018 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FICTION FINALIST\nSet in rural Oklahoma during the late 1980s,Where the Dead Sit Talkingis a stunning and lyrical Native American coming-of-age story.With his single mother in jail, Sequoyah, a fifteen-year-old Cherokee boy, is placed in foster care with the Troutt family. Literally and figuratively scarred by his mothers years of substance abuse, Sequoyah keeps mostly to himself, living with his emotions pressed deep below the surface. At least until he meets seventeen-year-old Rosemary, a troubled artist who also lives with the family.Sequoyah and Rosemary bond over their shared Native American background and tumultuous paths through the foster care system, but as Sequoyahs feelings toward Rosemary deepen, the precariousness of their lives and the scars of their pasts threaten to undo them both.\nFinalist for the 2018 National Book Award for FictionFinalist for the 2019 SFC Literary PrizeLonglisted for the 2020 International Dublin Literary AwardLonglisted for the 2019 Aspen Words Literary PrizeNPR’sCode SwitchBest Books of 2018AKirkus ReviewsBest Book of 2018ASouthern LivingBest Book of 20182018 Reading the West Book Award Winner for Fiction2019 In the Margins Book Award Top Fiction NovelPraise forWhere the Dead Sit TalkingSet in rural Oklahoma in the 1980s, Hobson’s tale reverberates with the hope of connection as it explores Native displacement and loss.The New York TimesThis is a dark story that depicts the loneliness and pain of unwanted children and the foster care system where they end up . . . authentic and humane.The Oklahoman A dark, twisting, emotional novel about a teenage Cherokee boy dislocated in the foster care system . . .The novel holds a difficult dialogue on intergenerational trauma, the effects of separating children from their Nations, and the perilous outcomes if we do not make urgent changes to the systems forcing American Indians to assimilate and disconnect. This may be set in the past, however, the same cycles exist today, showing that we have not yet learned the necessary lessons to interrupt the trauma.Electric LiteratureI was really struck by the intelligence of the book, as well as the significance of the story that he’s telling, about what it’s like to be a modern Indigenous person in this country, as a Native American, and to be in the foster care system. I was very struck by the plot of itit’s very well written, it’s very propulsive, it’s very readable for literary fiction, and I would recommend it heartily to book clubs.Min Jin Lee, author ofPachinkoImagine a plot hybrid of Dickens and George Saunders.The Brooklyn RailDreamlike prose . . . Where the Dead Sit Talkingis an exploration of whether its possible for a person to heal when all the world sees is a battlefield of scars.San Diego CityBeat The latest from Hobson is a smart, dark novel of adolescence, death, and rural secrets set in late-1980s Oklahoma. Hobsons narrative control is stunning, carrying the reader through scenes and timelines with verbal grace and sparse detail. Far more than a mere coming-of-age story, this is a remarkable and moving novel.Publishers Weekly, Starred ReviewA masterly tale of life and death, hopes and fears, secrets and lies.Kirkus Reviews, Starred ReviewHobson’s eloquent prose and story line will keep literary and general fiction readers turning pages. Its teen protagonists offer interest for young adults.Library Journal