PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • HEATHER'S PICK • A GLOBE AND MAIL TOP 100 BOOK A contemporary classic, this “astonishing literary debut” (Margaret Atwood, bestselling author of The Handmaid’s Tale) “really is that good” (New York Times). Here is a story of several people, each of whom has private reasons for travelling to the Big Oakland Powwow. Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honour his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil Red Feather, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and has come to the powwow to dance in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion, and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and unspeakable loss. Fierce, angry, funny, and heartbreaking There There is a relentlessly paced multi-generational story about violence and recovery, memory and identity, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. An unforgettable debut.

We basically had a hung jury on this book about a dozen Native people in Oakland coming together at a pow-wow to tragic and life-changing results. All of us agreed that Orange asked a very interesting question in the book: what did it mean to be an urban Indian, a Native not based on old stories and history, but born of the trauma and poverty of modern day. There were a number of striking characters and good insights on the trauma of a forgotten people. We all agreed the plot contrivances (e.g. 'That's your father! OMG, I'm sure THAT was my mother') were pretty weak. At that point, opinions differed sharply. Those who liked the book found the cast of a dozen characters rich and moving. The repeated stories of suffering reinforced the tragedy and provided a variety of views that reflected a fractured culture in exactly the way Orange wanted to show it. A lot was made of the fact that 'Native' in the book actually referred to many different tribes who might never have gotten along, and so the multitudes in the book were critical to the view of a broken culture that Orange was arguing. Others at NUBClub felt that the diversity of characters became redundant and made all the characters thin. The Alcatraz scene was great; why couldn't that have been a whole book? Why couldn't we just concentrate on Opal and Jackie, or just Calvin and his gang? At a certain point, the debate circled around the expectations of the book from the description. People who liked the book thought the characters' sufferings were very true to life and vivid; detractors thought the sufferings were exactly what they predicted the book would be about and were disappointed that Orange didn't show more nuanced and surprising takes on the issues. In the end, no bridges formed between these two sides. Some were moved by the book and some were turned off and disconnected by it. It will fall on the reader to form their own opinion of this one.