There There
Technical:
- ID: 65
- Added: 2025-08-30
- Updated: 2025-08-30
- Reviews: 3
Discover Tommy Orange’s searing debut novel, following a multi-generational cast of characters as they gather for the Big Oakland Powwow. 'A thunderclap' Marlon James 'Astonishing' Margaret Atwood, via Twitter 'Pure soaring beauty' Colm Tóibín Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and hoping to reconnect with her estranged family. That's why she is there. Dene is there because he has been collecting stories to honour his uncle's death, while Edwin is looking for his true father and Opal came to watch her boy Orvil dance. All of them are connected by bonds they may not yet understand. All of them are here for the celebration that is the Big Oakland Powwow. But Tony Loneman is also there. And Tony has come to the Powow with darker intentions. ** Shortlisted for the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award ** 'An exhilarating, polyphonic debut novel... Dazzling' Daily Telegraph 'Lyrical and playful, shaking and shimmering with energy... Orange creates beauty out of tragedy' Guardian 'Bold and engrossing... Orange has got under his characters' skins, allowing them to speak for themselves' Financial Times
Reviews
Pull quotes
- It is both deeply affecting and thrilling in the way it barrels through an endless supply of ideas.
- I definitely fell in love with the novel of ideas before I fell in love with the readable, fun novel.
- The novel can be a vehicle for ideas, and it can happen in a 'Trojan horse' kind of way.
Pull quotes
- There There details the journeys of its 12 narrators, connected through a variety of familial relationships and, more abstractly, a shared exploration of the Native American experience.
- The novel barrels through an endless supply of ideas while still being a great story.
- It is both deeply affecting and thrilling.
Pull quotes
- A multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about a side of America few of us have ever seen.
- The book explores themes of Native peoples living in urban spaces, and issues of ambivalence and complexity related to Natives' struggles with identity and authenticity.
- There There was favorably received, and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize.