The Removed

Book excerpt: A novel “about a [Cherokee] family’s reckoning with loss and injustice...spirited, droll, and as quietly devastating as rain lifting from earth to sky” (Tommy Orange, New York Times–bestselling author of There, There). Steeped in Cherokee myths and history, a novel about a family fractured by loss—from National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson In the fifteen years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation. With the family’s annual bonfire approaching—an occasion marking both the Cherokee National Holiday and Ray-Ray’s death—Maria attempts to call the family together once more. But as the reunion draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world. “Rich in Cherokee folklore” (San Francisco Chronicle) The Removed is “a moving meditation on family, home, and ancestral trauma” (Harper’s Bazaar). “A marvel. With a few sly gestures, a humble array of piercingly real characters...Brandon Hobson delivers an act of regeneration and solace. You won’t forget it.” —Jonathan Lethem, bestselling author of The Feral Detective “Multilayered, emotionally radiant...Highly recommended.” —Library Journal, starred review “Mesmerizing.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Hobson is a master storyteller. . . . This will stay long in readers’ minds.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review