First published 1998
Victor Joseph navigates life between worlds on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He watches his father drink away another paycheck while his mother works double shifts at the tribal clinic. Basketball games at the community center become battles for dignity. Friends gather at the trading post, sharing jokes that cut deep and stories that bind them together. Victor travels to Phoenix and Spokane, but the reservation calls him back. He struggles with anger, poverty, and the weight of history his people carry. His relationship with Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the reservation storyteller everyone ignores, reveals old wounds and unexpected connections. Each story in this collection captures moments of survival, loss, and stubborn hope. The characters speak in voices shaped by tradition and displacement, finding humor in hardship and meaning in small acts of resistance.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, native-american
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Phoenix, Spokane, Spokane Indian Reservation
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
Library Binding · Demco Media
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse