Indigenous Voices Book Club: "A Council of Dolls" by Mona Susan Power
About this Event
The Indigenous Voices Book Club is devoted to reading and discussing books by Indigenous writers, bringing together fiction, memoir, history, poetry, and more. Each month, we'll encounter stories and perspectives that deepen our understanding of Indigenous experiences, histories, cultures, and contemporary life.
This month, we're reading Mona Susan Power's A Council of Dolls—a novel that follows three generations of Dakota women and the dolls that carry their secrets, memories, and stories. Moving backward in time from the 1960s to the late nineteenth century, Power introduces us to Sissy, Lillian, and Cora, each a girl growing up in a world shaped by family love as well as the violence inflicted on Native children and families by the United States. Their dolls are more than childhood companions: they watch, remember, protect, and sometimes speak, holding what the people around them cannot. Drawing on the devastating history of Indian boarding schools while leaving room for humor, tenderness, and the uncanny, A Council of Dolls is ultimately a story about what travels from one generation to the next—and what it might take to interrupt that inheritance. Intimate, inventive, and deeply rooted in Dakota history and culture, it's a novel about mothers and daughters, survival, and the stories that refuse to be silenced.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day.
From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools, A Council of Dolls is the story of three women, told in part through the stories of the dolls they carried….
Sissy, born 1961: Sissy’s relationship with her beautiful and volatile mother is difficult, even dangerous, but her life is also filled with beautiful things, including a new Christmas present, a doll called Ethel. Ethel whispers advice and kindness in Sissy’s ear, and in one especially terrifying moment, maybe even saves Sissy’s life.
Lillian, born 1925: Born in her ancestral lands in a time of terrible change, Lillian clings to her sister, Blanche, and her doll, Mae. When the sisters are forced to attend an “Indian school” far from their home, Blanche refuses to be cowed by the school’s abusive nuns. But when tragedy strikes the sisters, the doll Mae finds her way to defend the girls.
Cora, born 1888: Though she was born into the brutal legacy of the “Indian Wars,” Cora isn’t afraid of the white men who remove her to a school across the country to be “civilized.” When teachers burn her beloved buckskin and beaded doll Winona, Cora discovers that the spirit of Winona may not be entirely lost…
A modern masterpiece, A Council of Dolls is gorgeous, quietly devastating, and ultimately hopeful, shining a light on the echoing damage wrought by Indian boarding schools, and the historical massacres of Indigenous people. With stunning prose, Mona Susan Power weaves a spell of love and healing that comes alive on the page.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mona Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Her novel, A Council of Dolls, was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. She is the author of three previously published works of fiction, The Grass Dancer, which won the Pen/Hemingway Prize, Sacred Wilderness, and Roofwalker. Her short stories have been published by The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Best American Short Stories, and more. Mona is a graduate of Harvard and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 22.40
