Wandering Stars

A Novel

By: Tommy Orange

Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett, MacLeod Andrews, Alma Cuervo, Curtis Michael Holland, Calvin Joyal, Phil Ava, Emmanuel Chumaceiro, Christian Young, Charley Flyte

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The Pulitzer Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There ("Pure soaring beauty." The New York Times Book Review) delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous.

"For the sake of knowing, of understanding, Wandering Stars blew my heart into a thousand pieces and put it all back together again. This is a masterwork that will not be forgotten, a masterwork that will forever be part of you.”—Morgan Talty, bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez

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 Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.

In a novel that is by turns shattering and wondrous, Tommy Orange has conjured the ancestors of the family audiences first fell in love with in There There—warriors, drunks, outlaws, addicts—asking what it means to be the children and grandchildren of massacre. Wandering Stars is a novel about epigenetic and generational trauma that has the force and vision of a modern epic, an exceptionally powerful new book from one of the most exciting writers at work today and soaring confirmation of Tommy Orange’s monumental gifts.

©2024 Tommy Orange (P)2024 Random House Audio

Another winner

Tommy Orange knows how to craft a story. Great characters with historical events woven into the story. I enjoyed it very much.

The life of Opal. How she took on someone else's responsibilities and had a hard life because of it.

My only dislike was the chapter blending the beginning story to There, There. It felt a bit forced.

Honest Feelings

The portrayal of life stories depicting how each person got to where they were seemed well thought out. The boys appear to slowly succumb to addiction. All of the United States belonged to indigenous peoples. Actually, all of the world belonged to someone else first.

Truth

the story was heartbreaking and told of generational pain that's carried through. it's amazing our life choices and how they have an impact not only on ourselves but on our children and grandchildren. what the native people experienced and the pain they had to go through, it's nothing short of genocide. no matter how many tears I shed I don't think we will ever understand the pain. the readers did a beautiful job of conveying the hurt and pain and misery and ache. it was a truly unique story of generations and how our pain gets brought down to others and how each person tries to survive. I highly recommend

Beautiful

Beautiful novel, I was so excited to see there was a second book by Tommy Orange. Well done.

Tommy woke me up

This is a book crammed with awakening for an old whitey like me. Thank you, Tommy Orange, for opening my eyes to what has been glaringly obvious my whole life regarding the plight of the Native American community but which I couldn't see. We all know that Native Amerians were robbed of their land, killed by white soldiers and settlers and their European-bred diseases, robbed of their food sources, and deadened by alcohol. But they were also robbed of their tribal identities. Mr. Orange does an outstanding job of elucidating the effects of these horrific forms of disenfranchisement, and in doing so, reclaims for himself and his readers and his community the dignity, depth, intelligence, and awareness of life for present-day Native Americans. I particularly loved the beginning and ending of the book. In the beginning, he chronicles the life of a survivor of an Indian massacre in incredible detail. In the end of the book, he uses several of his young male characters to opine about life for the Native American in this present-day America. I recommend this book highly.

A Deep Book

After listening to this book, I returned to There There to get more on the backstories of the characters, then I listened to Wandering Stars again. This is a superb, deep book. I highly recommend it.

Great follow up to There, There

I really loved the story behind the families lineage. I feel like Tommy really has found his niche and writing style. He captures despair and hope of Native struggles so profoundly. 10/10 Amazing!

Compelling language and characters

Orange exposes the search for identity and belonging for his characters who exist both inside and outside of two cultures. One character supposes his super power as a Native American is invisibility because no one sees them.

Yay Tommy Orange

I enjoyed listening to this excellent audiobook featuring a large cast portraying each character. I had trouble tracking the branches of the family tree but found a description online which helped. I recommend it.