“A haunted work, full of voices old and new. It is about a family’s reckoning with loss and injustice, and it is about a people trying for the same. The journey of this family’s way home is full—in equal measure—of melancholy and love.”—Tommy Orange, author of There There
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Steeped in Cherokee myths and history, a novel about a fractured family reckoning with the tragic death of their son long ago—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, and a rare moment in which they openly talk about his memory—Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world. Maria and Ernest take in a foster child who seems to almost miraculously keep Ernest’s mental fog at bay. Sonja becomes dangerously fixated on a man named Vin, despite—or perhaps because of—his ties to tragedy in her lifetime and lifetimes before. And in the wake of a suicide attempt, Edgar finds himself in the mysterious Darkening Land: a place between the living and the dead, where old atrocities echo.
Drawing deeply on Cherokee folklore, The Removed seamlessly blends the real and spiritual to excavate the deep reverberations of trauma—a meditation on family, grief, home, and the power of stories on both a personal and ancestral level.
“The Removed is a marvel. With a few sly gestures, a humble array of piercingly real characters and an apparently effortless swing into the dire dreamlife, Brandon Hobson delivers an act of regeneration and solace. You won’t forget it.” —Jonathan Lethem, author of The Feral Detective
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A haunted work, full of voices old and new. It is about a family’s reckoning with loss and injustice, and it is about a people trying for the same. The journey of this family’s way home is full — in equal measure — of melancholy and love.
The Removed is a marvel. With a few sly gestures, a humble array of piercingly real characters and an apparently effortless swing into the dire dreamlife, Brandon Hobson delivers an act of regeneration and solace. You won’t forget it.
A quietly dazzling and haunting achievement.
The Removed is told/written in multiple POVs; the present – Maria (mother), Sonja (daughter), Edgar (younger son), and the past – Tsala (an ancestor). The Echota family deals with the lose of a family member (Ray-Ray) due to a police officer shooting him and must go through the grief of that loss and familial strains afterwards; each person trying to heal in their own way – through substance/drug use/abuse, taking in a child, isolation and a yearly bonfire in remembrance of their loss.
Some parts were emotionally difficult for me to read because of the Alzheimer’s Disease parts. I felt The Removed to be a very touching, tough and heartfelt book steeped in myth/lore and history or the Cherokee people. I loved learning about some of the Cherokee myths and history, it was very enlightening.
TW: Death, Death of a child, Drug addiction and abuse, racism/racial injustice, gun violence, police brutality/murder, physical violence,
Thank you so much to Netgalley, Ecco and Brandon Hobson for the opportunity to read this great book. All opinions are my own.
The Removed by Brandon Hobson is an emotional book, contained emotionality. Their son, Ray-Ray, was killed by an over-eager mall cop, pretty much because his skin was brown and the other boys were white. He didn’t have the gun, one of the white boys had. Very year they have a bonfire to commemorate his death. This year is different. Their other son is who-knows-where doing who-knows-what; taking drugs, probably. They have a foster child, which is hard because of Ernest progressing dementia. He is like Ray-Ray in so many ways, Ernest gets them confused. They are all Cherokee, living in Oklahoma. The story is infused with Cherokee legend and wisdom. It is a lesson in how difficult life can be, but how good at the same time. The narration of the story travels from person to person, giving them all personalities and us insights into them. It is not easy. The history is not easy. The reality is not easy. One reason to read to visit places you’ve never been and live lives you’ll never live. These are outstanding lives to lead, just so you know.
I was invited to read a free ARC of The Removed by Netgalley. All opinions contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #theremoved
Originally intrigued by the synopsis, I thought this book would be more about one family’s journey to healing after a great loss. It starts out promising enough but the more you read the more that story doesn’t make sense and the plot goes un-developed. By the end of the book you wonder where the last true chapters are because the story just ends and you’re as confused as ever.