Genre Fiction
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The Removed: A Novel
"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
A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM
USA Today * O, the Oprah Magazine * Entertainment Weekly * Harper's Bazaar * Buzzfeed * Washington Post * Elle * Parade * San Francisco Chronicle * Good Housekeeping * Vulture * Refinery29 * AARP * Kirkus * PopSugar * Alma * Woman's Day * Chicago Review of Books * The Millions * Biblio Lifestyle * Library Journal * Publishers Weekly * LitHub
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
-Tommy Orange, author of There There
A RECOMMENDED BOOK FROM
USA Today * O, the Oprah Magazine * Entertainment Weekly * Harper's Bazaar * Buzzfeed * Washington Post * Elle * Parade * San Francisco Chronicle * Good Housekeeping * Vulture * Refinery29 * AARP * Kirkus * PopSugar * Alma * Woman's Day * Chicago Review of Books * The Millions * Biblio Lifestyle * Library Journal * Publishers Weekly * LitHub
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
Editorial Reviews
"Extraordinary…. Pulling out all the stops, [Hobson's] carved a striking new benchmark for fiction about Native Americans." -- Los Angeles Times
"[A] mythic, sweeping novel." -- New York Times Book Review
"Deeply resonant and profound, and not only because of its exquisite lyricism. It's also a hard and visceral entrance into our own reckoning as a society and civic culture with losses we created, injustices we allowed, and family separations we ignored…. The Removed is powerful storytelling." -- NPR
"A subtle, powerful novel that connects the Echotas' immediate struggles with loss and memory to a wider swath of Cherokee history, from the Trail of Tears to the present. It's a surprisingly magnetic and eerie book, like a concrete brick that cracks open to reveal a sparkling geode, throwing off a strange light." -- USA Today
"A funny, sensual, realistic, thoughtful, horrific, and ultimately truthful account of the ongoing scourge of racism in American life…. Intelligent and compassionate." -- LA Review of Books
"Blurring the boundaries between the tangible and the spiritual, Brandon Hobson's latest novel draws on Cherokee folklore to offer a moving meditation on family, home, and ancestral trauma." -- Harper's Bazaar
"A soul-stirring saga... very much about the power of storytelling, how telling tales-true or otherwise-can be bittersweet but a necessary balm." -- O, the Oprah Magazine
"Spirituality is woven into the story like a soft thread of silk, binding the everyday lives of the characters with otherworldly warnings and messages of strength…. This gut-wrenching tale of broken hearts and shattered dreams spotlights the devastation caused by ongoing racism in our country, while also providing a ray of hope on the distant horizon." -- Washington Independent Review of Books
"Though rooted in-and inseparable from-the Cherokee culture, the book is also a complex, inventive and thoughtfully universal tale of love and longing." -- Bookreporter.com
"Stunning.... Hobson uses Cherokee folklore to great effect in this profound, powerful look at the ways in which trauma - both recent and generational - infuses every aspect of our lives, but that it is possible to heal, to recover without ever forgetting what happened and what is still owed in order to reach a place of true understanding." -- Refinery 29
"Splendid…. Hobson, a National Book Award finalist for his novel Where the Dead Sit Talking, weaves strands of the past and present so skillfully that events that would be improbable in the hands of another author are inevitable in The Removed. More than anythi...
"[A] mythic, sweeping novel." -- New York Times Book Review
"Deeply resonant and profound, and not only because of its exquisite lyricism. It's also a hard and visceral entrance into our own reckoning as a society and civic culture with losses we created, injustices we allowed, and family separations we ignored…. The Removed is powerful storytelling." -- NPR
"A subtle, powerful novel that connects the Echotas' immediate struggles with loss and memory to a wider swath of Cherokee history, from the Trail of Tears to the present. It's a surprisingly magnetic and eerie book, like a concrete brick that cracks open to reveal a sparkling geode, throwing off a strange light." -- USA Today
"A funny, sensual, realistic, thoughtful, horrific, and ultimately truthful account of the ongoing scourge of racism in American life…. Intelligent and compassionate." -- LA Review of Books
"Blurring the boundaries between the tangible and the spiritual, Brandon Hobson's latest novel draws on Cherokee folklore to offer a moving meditation on family, home, and ancestral trauma." -- Harper's Bazaar
"A soul-stirring saga... very much about the power of storytelling, how telling tales-true or otherwise-can be bittersweet but a necessary balm." -- O, the Oprah Magazine
"Spirituality is woven into the story like a soft thread of silk, binding the everyday lives of the characters with otherworldly warnings and messages of strength…. This gut-wrenching tale of broken hearts and shattered dreams spotlights the devastation caused by ongoing racism in our country, while also providing a ray of hope on the distant horizon." -- Washington Independent Review of Books
"Though rooted in-and inseparable from-the Cherokee culture, the book is also a complex, inventive and thoughtfully universal tale of love and longing." -- Bookreporter.com
"Stunning.... Hobson uses Cherokee folklore to great effect in this profound, powerful look at the ways in which trauma - both recent and generational - infuses every aspect of our lives, but that it is possible to heal, to recover without ever forgetting what happened and what is still owed in order to reach a place of true understanding." -- Refinery 29
"Splendid…. Hobson, a National Book Award finalist for his novel Where the Dead Sit Talking, weaves strands of the past and present so skillfully that events that would be improbable in the hands of another author are inevitable in The Removed. More than anythi...
Readers Top Reviews
Emily WetzelJoe Kess
Short and spooky. You too may be haunted by the end. A showcase of a family's journey through life, death, and everything beyond and between.
Kory Kencayd
Brandon Hobson is a wonderful author. I’m from the Quah” so may be a little prejudiced in that regard. What he writes takes me home. I care about his characters. I feel like I know them.
bh
Hobson is a profoundly gifted writer! This book reads like an elder telling their story, smooth, melodic, and mesmerizing!
Diking77
I am sure that I did not understand or appreciate many of the subtleties contained in this book, but I strongly felt their presence.
Bonnie Brody
This novel combines Cherokee folklore, history and contemporary issues facing a Native American family. It has been 15 years since Rae-Rae, Maria and Ernest's son has been killed in a police shooting. The police shot the wrong man but, as often happens, they chose to shoot the alleged culprit with the darker skin. Every year since Rae Rae's death, Maria has a bonfire to celebrate family love and Rae Rae's memory. The family is hovering on the brink of despair. Ernest has Alzheimer's and is quickly descending into a dark place where his memory has no purchase. Rae Rae's younger brother Edgar is a prisoner of drug addiction and finds himself stuck in a place known as The Darkening Land. His girlfriend has left him and he has not seen his them in months. He is not sure whether he will attend the bonfire. Sonja is 37 and still single. From time to time, she finds herself fixated on certain men but she finds none of them good enough for a sustained relationship. The novel ingeniously melds the present, past, oral history, and mythology of the Cherokee people with their current isolation and poverty on their reservation. I found the timeline difficult to follow in the beginning but it merged together as the book progressed. In a sense, it is a novel of magical realism that borrows from other genres to make a beautiful sculpture of a people, place and land in the present and from the past.
