“There is every chance this will be viewed as a modern masterpiece”

The harsh realities of the lives of indigenous Indian people have been put in the spotlight with Mona Susan Power’s National Book Award long-listed epic, A Council of Dolls.

The PEN Award-winning Native American author brings a story which spans three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the late 19th century to the present day.

This evocative take takes the reader from the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the windswept ancestral lands of the Dakota people, to the bleak and brutal Indian boarding schools.

The story is about three generations of women with their tales being told, in part, through the dolls they carried.

The blurb for this book, which feels like it carries an important message, reads as follows;

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…

Mona Susan Power weaves a spell of love and healing that comes alive on the page and there is every chance that A Council of Dolls will be viewed as a modern masterpiece in years to come.