First published 1953
True Son has lived with the Lenape Indians since childhood, speaking their language and following their ways. At fifteen, he considers himself Indian in every way that matters. Then a treaty forces his return to his birth family, white settlers he barely remembers. His Lenape father must surrender him to people True Son sees as enemies. The white family welcomes him as their lost child, but True Son rejects their clothes, their food, and their attempts to remake him. He speaks only Lenape and dreams of escape back to his real family. His white relatives grow frustrated as True Son refuses to adapt to their world. The boy faces an impossible choice between two peoples who both claim him. Conrad Richter explores the painful territory between cultures through a young man who belongs fully to neither world yet is shaped by both.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century, native-american
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, identity-crisis
Setting: Lenape, United States
Period: 19th Century
188 pages · Hardcover · Amereon Ltd