“If she’s going through the pearly gates, she damn well ought to suffer on her way there.” Ann- Helén Laestadius’s Punished (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles, Scribner 2025 – originally published by Romanus & Selling in 2023) will gut you just as surely and jaggedly as Stolen. I’ve said before that Laestadius reminds me ofContinue reading “PUNISHED – Ann- Helén Laestadius”
Tag Archives: Indigenous
THE BERRY PICKERS – Amanda Peters
“…lost in a memory stirred alive by the moon.” Amanda Peters’s debut The Berry Pickers (Catapult 2023) is a quiet triumph of a novel about grief, anger, loss, identity, and forgiveness. When I was a child, I asked for The Face on the Milk Carton for Christmas. (It’s one of a few books I rememberContinue reading “THE BERRY PICKERS – Amanda Peters”
STOLEN – Ann- Helén Laestadius
“The reindeer were biekka oapmi, belonging to the wind.” Ann- Helén Laestadius’s Stolen (translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles, Scribner 2023 – originally published by Romanus & Selling in 2021) came to my attention in January when Fredrick Backman recommended it. I made a mental note to check it out and promptly forgot. ThisContinue reading “STOLEN – Ann- Helén Laestadius”
ANCESTOR APPROVED: Intertribal Stories for Kids
“Your body remembers how to dance. Your ancestors have been dancing like this for generations.” Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids (Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Harper Collins 2021) is a collection of eighteen stories that are all connected by the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow, an intertribal event held in Anne Arbor, Michigan. MuchContinue reading “ANCESTOR APPROVED: Intertribal Stories for Kids”
A Girl Named Tommi 