Wandering Stars

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

'No one knows how to express tenderness and yearning like Tommy Orange' Louise Erdrich

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 an evangelical prison guard, who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture and identity. Years later, Star's son, Charles, is sent to this school, where he is brutalised by the same man. Together with fellow student Opal Viola, Charles envisions a future far away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.

Full of poetry, music, rage and love, Wandering Stars looks to the past and future across three generations of the Bear Shield and Red Feather family, finding their way through displacement and pain, towards home and hope.

'This novel is alive' Tess Gunty

'A towering achievement' New York Times