Indian Killer - Softcover

Alexie, Sherman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 222625207X ISBN 13: 9782226252074

Publisher: ALBIN MICHEL, 2013

Synopsis

A New York Times Notable Book and a national best seller, Indian Killer is arguably Sherman Alexie's most controversial book to date--a riveting, gritty, racially charged literary thriller that, over a decade after its first publication, remains an electrifying tale of alienation and justice. A serial murderer called the Indian Killer is terrorizing Seattle, hunting and scalping white men and adorning their bodies with owl feathers. Motivated by rage and seeking retribution for his people's violent history, his grizzly MO and skillful elusiveness both paralyze the city with fear and prompt an uprising of racial brutality. Out of the chaos emerges John Smith. Born to Indians but raised by white parents, Smith yearns for his lost heritage. As his embitterment with his dual life increases, Smith falls deeper into vengeful madness and quickly surfaces as the prime suspect. Smith struggles to find a connection to his past while seeking comfort in Marie, a student activist and Indian who is estranged from her tribe. But their bond is not enough. As tensions mount, Smith desperately battles to allay the anger that engulfs him, and the Indian Killer claims another life. With acerbic wit and chilling page-turning intensity, Alexie takes an unflinching look at what nurtures rage within a race both colonized and marginalized by a society that neither values nor understands it.

About this title

Review:

"Alexie has an angry wit and offhand charm; his prose pops and dazzles and stares you steadily in the eye."

"Part thriller, part magical realism, and part social commentary, Indian Killer... lingers long past the final page."

"Vigorous prose . . . haunted, surprising characters . . . flashes of sardonic wit . . . [Indian Killer is] a meditative exploration of the sources of human identity."
"A terrific second novel by the talented Native American author whose highly praised fiction has already moved him onto the short list of the country's best young writers. It's a rich, panoramic portrayal of contemporary Seattle that uses the form of the mystery to tell some uncomfortable home truths about Indian-white relations, and indeed racism in all its forms . . . [an] exciting story with a host of keenly observed and rigorously analyzed characters. . . . Alexie succeeds brilliantly at suggesting the time-bomb-ticking character of John Smith's ravaged psyche, and the novel rips along at a breathless pace. . . . Both a splendidly constructed thriller--and a haunting, challenging articulation of the plight and the pride of contemporary Native Americans." --"Kirkus Reviews" (starred review)
"Vigorous prose . . . haunted, surprising characters . . . flashes of sardonic wit . . . [ Indian Killer is] a meditative exploration of the sources of human identity." --Richard E. Ni

About the Author:

A Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, Sherman J. Alexie, Jr. grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, WA. His first collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993). For this collection, he received a PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction, and was awarded a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award. One of the short stories featured in the collection, "This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona," was later adapted into the film Smoke Signals (1998), which Alexie helped produce. Alexie was named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists and won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award and the Murray Morgan Prize for his first novel, Reservation Blues, published in 1995. His second novel, Indian Killer (1996), was named one of People's Best of Pages and a New York Times Notable Book. His most recent honors include the 2007 National Book Award in Young People's Literature for his young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Alexie's most recent publications are Flight, released in April 2007, and Radioactive Love Song, in April 2009.

About this edition

• Publisher: ALBIN MICHEL
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 222625207X
• ISBN 13: 9782226252074
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 420