Promotional Information

A groundbreaking polyphonic novel, weaving together a dynamic narrative about violence and recovery, family and loss, identity and power.

About the Author

Tommy Orange was born and raised in Oakland, California. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He currently lives in Angels Camp, California.

Tommy is a recent graduate from the MFA programme at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is a 2014 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. There There is his first novel.

Reviews

"How do you rewrite the story of a people? This question shapes Tommy Orange's sorrowful, beautiful debut novel . . . There There itself is a kind of dance. Even in its tragic details, it is lyrical and playful, shaking and shimmering with energy. The novel dips into the tiniest personal details and sweeps across history. Orange creates beauty out of tragedy." -- Rowan Hisayo Buchanan * Guardian *
"[A] bold and engrossing debut... [Orange] has got under his characters' skins, allowing them to speak for themselves... This is a powerful novel of pain and possibility" -- Erica Wagner * Financial Times *
"A magnificent achievement... Orange has created a remarkable work, and I have little doubt that he will be ranked in the pantheon of 21st century American novelists" -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *
"It is optimism that lingers after finishing the book. Fragile and flawed though this hope might be, it remains moving and powerful, just like the rest of Orange's impressive achievement" -- Alexander Larman * Observer *
"Compelling and affecting... It's a searing, haunting read - all the way to its violent, intense climax" -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *
"Mr Orange's sparkling debut is not merely a literary triumph but a cultural and political one, too. It is a work of defiance and recovery" * Economist *
"One of the most dazzling openings I have read this year . . . [An] exhilarating, polyphonic debut novel" -- Luiza Sauma * Daily Telegraph *
"Articulated bluntly and beautifully by Orange, it's magnificent, bold, educational and forthright. It's something of a masterpiece" * UK Press Syndication *
"An involving and ambitious debut" -- Adam Lively * Sunday Times *
"There There drops on us like a thunderclap; the big, booming, explosive sound of 21st century literature finally announcing itself. Essential." -- Marlon James
"Coming very soon: There There, by Tommy Orange. Gripping deep dive into urban #indigenous community: astonishing literary debut!" -- Margaret Atwood (on Twitter)
"Welcome to a brilliant and generous artist who has already enlarged the landscape of American fiction. There There is a comic vision haunted by profound sadness. Tommy Orange is a new writer with an old heart." -- Louise Erdrich
"There There is a propulsive, groundbreaking novel, polyphonic and multigenerational, weaving together an array of contemporary Native American voices into a singularly dynamic and original meta-narrative about violence and recovery, about family and loss, about identity and power." -- Derek Palacio
"There, There is an urgent, invigorating, absolutely vital book by a novelist with more raw virtuosic talent than any young writer I've come across in a long, long time. Maybe ever. Tommy Orange is a stylist with substance, a showboater with a deeply moral compass. I want to call him heir to Gertrude Stein by way of George Saunders, but he is even more original than that. This book will make your heart swell." -- Clare Vaye Watkins
"It's practically Shakespearean. But there's sharp humour and spiky energy too in this bold, distinctive debut" -- Siobhan Murphy * The Times *