On the eve of the publication of his new novel, Fire Exit (out June 4 from Tin House Books), PEOPLE asked award-winning author Morgan Talty to recommend a few of his favorite books by Native American and Indigenous writers.
Fire Exit, Talty’s debut novel, is a book about secrets. It follows Charles Lamosway, a man who has watched his neighbor Elizabeth grow up across the river on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation for her entire life. But what no one knows is that Elizabeth is his daughter, and when he doesn’t see her, he starts to worry. He’s also trying to care for his alcoholic friend Bobby; his mother, Louise, whose dementia is worsening, and stay ahead of the ghosts of his past. Those include a truncated love affair, the accidental (and controversial) death of his stepfather, and whether his secret is best off kept that way if sharing it could ruin lives.
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Talty is also the author of Night of the Living Rez, and a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation where he grew up. Below, the author recommends a few books to learn more about Native and Indigenous people, in all their diversity.
‘American Indians and the Law’ by N. Bruce Duthu
I read a forum once where lawyers, looking back at law school, shared their experience in taking a Federal Indian Law class, and everyone said basically the same thing: “It doesn’t make any sense.”
They’re right.
By way of clarity, precision and his commanding voice, American Indians and the Law by Professor N. Bruce Duthu, who teaches at Dartmouth College, offers readers an easy way to realize what those lawyers realized: Federal Indian Law doesn’t make sense!
It’s important we understand how law and legislation has shaped a place and its people, and American Indians and the Law is a must read to gain that understanding.
‘In the Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever’ by Walter R Echo-Hawk
Did you know that 1 in 3 Native American and Alaskan women will be raped in their lifetime? Did you know that 86% of rapes and sexual assault on Native women are perpetrated by non-Native men?
Did you know those men usually get away with it?
How did that happen?
If you read N. Bruce Duthu’s book, you’ll know that federally recognized tribes are considered sovereign entities — they are Nations — and that in 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe that Tribal Nations do not have the inherent right to try and prosecute non-members who commit crimes on their land. This ruling is the largest reason for these high statistics.
That’s a pretty bad decision, right?
But in Courts of the Conqueror: The 10 Worst Indian Law Cases Ever by Walter R Echo-Hawk, you won’t find this course case mentioned. There are worse ones out there.
‘The Indian Card: Who Gets to Be Native in America’ by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz
“We get it, Morgan, read up on the history of Native Amer—”
Carrie’s book is so dang good you need to get two copies: one for you and then the other for a friend. Writing about identity is tough, but writing about Native identity is even tougher. Yet Schuettpelz, with so much research and interviews, shares the stories of people caught in the mire of identity-formation with such ease.
The voice is pitch perfect, there is not one wrong word and the content is written with so much grace and elegance and honesty you can’t help but finish Schuettpelz’s work knowing it will live on for as long as it takes to unravel the many, many contradictions surrounding what it means to Native American today.
Fifty Miles from ‘Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People’ by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley
If the title doesn’t snag you then go on, get out of here! In his memoir, William L. Iggiagruk Hensley gives us an unforgettable account of growing up Native Alaskan and, as an adult, his bold advocacy for the United States to recognize his tribe, the Inupiaq, as Natives and return them their land. This book reads as smooth as muktuk, raw or frozen whale meat eaten by the Iñupiaq, which, despite the heated conflicts, get us closer to Tomorrow.
‘Sinking Bell: Stories’ by Bojan Louis
Short stories are where it is at, and Bojan Louis’s Sinking Bell’s collections consistently delivers. The voices you encounter, the characters, the settings, the prose—all of it—surprise you again and again. This is originality at it finest.
‘Swim Home to the Vanished’ by Brendan Basham
Basham’s novel is a gem. I mean it. So many novels are promoted by comparison yet very few can live up to the hype. This debut is an “original tale,” its synopsis tells us, “in the tradition of works by Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami and Gabriel García Márquez.”
It ain’t kidding. Not one bit.
‘Heart Berries’ by Terese Marie Mailhot
As readers, we bring to the page our experiences. In Heart Berries, Terese Marie Mailhot gives — no, gifts — readers with her story of survival in a manner that is never performative but always direct, always diving into darkness with the light of her prose and a voice so reverent, so tough, you can’t stop reading.
Heart Berries will continue to grow, so to speak, for as long as the earth is around.
‘White Magic’ by Elissa Washuta
The essays in White Magic are, simply put, magic. Throughout this collection, Washuta writes about colonization and life through stories, captivating narratives that would have David Blaine wanting to know the secret. But that’s the thing — I’m pretty sure there is no secret. Each essay makes you feel something so strong, there is no way to you will forget what it means to feel alive.
‘Thunder Song: Essays’ by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe
Do you want loud, bold and startingly majestic essays? Here you go then! None of Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe’s essays in Thunder Song fail to find truth: page after page, the intersections of family, heritage, history and music build to countless transcendental moments for the reader, which is not only the wonder of this book but a clear testament to Sasha’s immense storytelling power.
Thunder Song is masterful and wise, and it will not be forgotten.
‘The Lesser Blessed’ by Richard Van Camp
I believe in very few things, yet The Lesser Blessed, as dark as it is bright, is the only book I’ve ever read that had me thinking a paradise exists.
