Wandering Stars

Wandering Stars is a novel that covers several generations of the family that featured in his first novel, There, There, although it is not necessary to have read that book to understand this one. The bulk of Wandering Stars focuses on the present generation, but the early chapters make explicit the fact that the later characters are still grappling with the appalling legacy of how Native Americans have been treated over centuries. Orange moves among different perspectives with ease, with some characters speaking directly to the reader in first person, and other chapters provided by an omniscient narrator. Orange has a gift for capturing small yet meaningful interactions between people, and writing eloquently how we support each other (not always willingly, not always perfectly), through grief, addiction, and loss.