First published 2012
This collection brings together thirty stories spanning Sherman Alexie's career, mixing beloved classics with fresh work. The tales move between reservation life and urban settings across the Pacific Northwest, following Native American characters who navigate between worlds. In "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," a homeless man searches for his grandmother's stolen regalia. "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" follows a journey to retrieve a father's ashes. New stories explore donkey basketball leagues, deadly wind turbines, and marriage struggles. Characters face questions of identity, belonging, and survival in contemporary America. Some fight to maintain traditions while others break away from expectations. The stories capture moments of loss and connection, humor and pain. Alexie writes about modern warriors of all kinds, people who battle daily indignities and small victories. The collection reveals how Native Americans live now, caught between past and present, reservation and city, tradition and change.
Genres: short-stories, american-fiction, 21st-century, native-american
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, identity-crisis
Setting: Pacific Northwest, Reservation
Period: Contemporary
465 pages · Hardcover · Grove Press
Content warnings: racism