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 |
Ten
Little Indians |
Awards
Publishers Weekly editors' pick for June 2003
USA Today summer books pick
A Los Angeles Times Best of the Best Selection
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book
A Publishers Weekly Book of the Year
A San Jose Mercury News Best Book and Top 20 Fiction Selection
A San Francisco Chronicle
Best Seller
A Denver Post Best Seller
A Book Sense Best Seller
Los
Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction 2003 finalist
2004
Washington State Book Awards finalist
The
Best American Short Stories 2004 for “What You Pawn I Will
Redeem”
The O. Henry Prize
Stories 2005 for “What You Pawn I Will Redeem”
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Summary
Sherman Alexie is one of our most acclaimed and popular writers today. Now, with Ten Little Indians, he offers eleven poignant and emotionally resonant new stories about Native Americans who, like all Americans, find themselves at personal and cultural crossroads, faced with heartrending, tragic, sometimes wondrous moments of being that test their loyalties, their capacities, and their notions of who they are and who they love.
In "The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above," an intellectual feminist Spokane Indian woman saves the lives of dozens of white women all around her, to the bewilderment of her only child, now a grown man who looks back at his life with equal parts fondness, amusement, and regret. In "Do You Know Where I Am?" two college sweethearts rescue a lost cat--a simple act that has profound moral consequences for the rest of their lives together. In "What You Pawn I Will Redeem," a homeless Indian man must raise $1,000 in twenty-four hours to buy back the fancy dance outfit stolen from his grandmother fifty years earlier.
Even as they often
make us laugh, Sherman Alexie's stories are driven by a haunting lyricism
and naked candor that cut to the heart of the human experience, shedding
brilliant light on what happens when we grow into and out of each other.
Ten Little Indians is a great new work from "a master of language,
writing beautifully, unsparingly, and straight to the heart" (The
Nation).
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Table of Contents
The Search Engine
Lawyer's League
Can I Get a Witness?
Do Not Go Gentle
Flight Patterns
The Life and Times of Estella Walks Above
Do You Know Where I Am?
What You Pawn I Will Redeem
What Ever Happened to Frank Snake Church?
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Reviews
London
Guardian
New
York Times
Real
Change
Rocky
Mountain News
Los
Angeles Times
Washington
Post
Miami
Herald
“In [Alexie’s] warm, revealing, invitingly roundabout stories, the central figures come in all shapes and sizes, sharing only their wry perspective on Indian life off the reservation. . . . They are affectionate tales of dealings between men and women.” - Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“Nine seamless stories formed in the gut and delivered from the heart, depicting Native Americans caught in contemporary cultural crosshairs.” - Lauren Slater, Elle
“The stories are wide, expansive, and focus on the lives of Spokane Indians inside Seattle for the most part, many of whom are aspiring to nothing less than greatness. . . . The haunting and powerful fictions of Ten Little Indians deserve to be read, contemplated, and savored.” - William J. Cobb, The Houston Chronicle
“A stellar collection of full-hearted, energetic stories.” - People
“[Alexie’s]
stories, rambunctious and exuberant, bristle with an edgy and mordant
humor all his own.” - Robin Hemley, The Chicago Tribune
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