Wandering Stars

A revelation

New York Times

An emotionally incandescent and structurally riveting second novel… Orange’s work feels, to me, as vital as air

Guardian

[Wandering Stars] weaves a tapestry of trauma down the decades… Ultimately, the turns their stories take…are about healing, not catastrophe…marrying eye-opening historical re-creation with gritty social realism

Observer

A sweeping, centuries-spanning, intergenerational novel concerned with history, legacy and family… Tommy Orange confronts difficult subjects in mellifluous prose… He shows that storytelling is an intoxicant in itself, as powerful in its way as any substance

Times Literary Supplement

A centuries-spanning epic of a Native family that manages to feel profoundly intimate

Vulture

Outstanding . . . A dazzling work of literary fiction ... A novel about family, loss, history and addiction

Boston Globe

A multilayered, blisteringly honest novel ... [Wandering Stars] undeniably soars

San Francisco Chronicle

Wandering Stars probes the aftermath of atrocity, seeing history and its horrors as heritable . . . The reader can see what the characters cannot

New Yorker

Varied and textured but also ruthlessly clear

Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

Powerful and indelible ... A necessary story for everyone ... Wandering Stars blew my heart into a thousand pieces and put it all back together again. This is a masterwork that will not be forgotten, a masterwork that will forever be part of you

Morgan Talty, best selling author of Night of the Living Rez

Hold this novel to your heart because [it] is that magnificent

Richard Van Camp, author of The Moon of Letting Go

[Orange brings] both impressive historical sweep and touching domestic intimacy to an account of a Native American family over two centuries

Guardian, *Books of the Year*

Tremendous… [Wandering Stars is] unforgettable, often devastating… I love its kaleidoscopic sensibility, its big heart, anger and audaciousness

Observer, *Books of the Year*

A transcendent novel about one family’s intergenerational pain and grief… Written with the adept skill of an archivist and heart of a poet, this novel is truly expansive… evening in moments of deep crisis, Orange holds space for humour and fierce love

Skinny

Among the tragedy that is foreshadowed throughout, there is also redemption and humanity. It's a stunning book

Dua Lipa, Service95 Bookclub Pick March 2025