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    The Removed: A Novel
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    The Removed: A Novel
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    The Removed: A Novel
    Ebook264 pages5 hours

    The Removed: A Novel

    By Brandon Hobson

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “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 * TIME * 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

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 2, 2021
    ISBN9780062997562
    Author

    Brandon Hobson

    Brandon Hobson is the author of the novel Where the Dead Sit Talking, which was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction and winner of the Reading the West Book Award. His other books include Desolation of Avenues Untold and the novella Deep Ellum. His work has appeared in the Pushcart Prize anthology, The Believer, the Paris Review Daily, Conjunctions, NOON, and McSweeney’s, among other places. He is an assistant professor of creative writing at New Mexico State University and teaches in the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Hobson is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation Tribe of Oklahoma.

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    Reviews for The Removed

    3.5/5

    84 ratings10 reviews

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    • 2/5
      One of the depressing books I've ever read. I couldn't read it in one sitting or even more than a small chunk at a time. I get what the author was trying to do but I just didn't get hooked in. It is a good picture of the impact of loss of a loved one, especially unjustly, on people but for a reader the book has to go somewhere and this one, for me, didn't. I didn't get a sense of people healing, which I thought the book was going. I was already familiar with the Trail of Tears and how awful it was so that was new to me. The author did do a good job on showing the hardship but it didn't help me want to read any more.
    • 3/5
      Brandon Hobson writes haunting stories in a somewhat disjointed manner, and The Removed follows suit. Fifteen years after the fact, The Echota family is still struggling to move on from the police shooting of their son and brother, Ray-Ray. Every member of the family gets a voice in the book as the narration shifts perspectives — it even includes an ancestor from the Trail of Tears. The Removed is a difficult read, but a powerful story of grief, family, and Cherokee culture.
    • 5/5
      Focusing on the Echota family preparing for the annual bonfire to remember their murdered son, Hobson has used Cherokee folklore to help the family understand what has happened. Hobson was able to create characters who the reader can relate. From Ernest, the father, who is experiencing dementia and his wife, Maria, who holds the family together. The adult daughter is dealing with her identity and sadness and the son is struggling with addiction. Both of the adult children also deal with racism in their Oklahoma communities. Add in a foster child who seems to be the reincarnation of Ray-Ray, the dead son. I imagine that if I were to read this story the second time, I would see the same words with different eyes. Hobson is a master storyteller.
    • 4/5
      A powerful tale of family, identity, and the ways we deal with tragedy, all wrapped around Cherokee myths and storytelling. This book evoked so many emotions that I know will linger for a long time.
    • 4/5
      I think you have to be high on peyote to truly enjoy this book with all its dreams and symbolism. Then it would be a real winner.
    • 3/5
      I was expecting more given all the high praise it received but it fell short for me. I really liked the characters and the story overall but writing was very choppy and it felt like it needed more development.
    • 4/5
      A present-day Cherokee family deals with life and grief when an extraordinary young boy comes to stay with them for an emergency temporary foster placement. He is just like their deceased son and his presence restores some of the joy they've lost since his death. The old trauma of the removal plays a role in their lives and the other son's addictions, which he visualizes as a "red fowl" that follows him.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful story of a family and a people headed toward healing.
    • 4/5
      Good book. Very sad but also very moving.
    • 3/5
      Set mostly in Oklahoma, this book tells the story of the Echota family and their Cherokee ancestors. Teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting fifteen years ago. The family recognizes the anniversary of his death, and they are preparing for the annual bonfire. The storyline focuses on Ray-Ray’s mother, Maria, father, Ernest, sister, Sonja, and brother, Edgar. Maria and Sonja experience repercussions from their grief, and their stories take place in the real world. Ernest suffers from Alzheimer’s. Edgar is an addict. He takes drugs and finds himself in the Darkening World, a surreal world where he experiences bizarre events. Tsala is the voice of a long-dead ancestor who tells the story of the Trail of Tears.

      It is a story of grief – both past and present. It explores the idea that forgiveness is not required in order to achieve healing. The concept of home is prominent. The Darkening World inserts an element of magical realism. It could be drug-induced or perhaps the character is among the dead. I felt the sister’s story was the weakest link – her motivations are unclear, and I am not sure she added much.

      The author leaves the ending up to the reader to connect the stories to come up with an explanation. The reader’s reaction will likely depend on how effectively a satisfying conclusion can be conjured. I came up with something that worked for me.