There There

Tommy Orange's debut novel follows a large cast of Native Americans in and around Oakland, California, whose separate paths lead to the Big Oakland Powwow. Newly sober, Jacquie Red Feather hopes to make her way back to the family she left in shame. Dene Oxendene, rebuilding his life since his uncle died, is working at the powwow to honor him. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield is there to watch her nephew Orvil, who taught himself traditional dance from YouTube videos and will dance in public for the first time. Tony Loneman arrives with darker intentions. Orange, a Cheyenne and Arapaho writer, opens with an essay on violence against Indigenous people. The novel was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Barack Obama put it on the best of 2018 list he shared on Facebook, and Dua Lipa chose it for her Service95 Book Club, praising its short, fierce prologue for clearing away centuries of stereotypes about Native people.