Английская Википедия:A Council of Dolls

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A Council of Dolls is a 2023 historical fiction novel about multiple generations of Yanktonai Dakota women grappling with the effects of settler colonialism, told partially through the point of view of their dolls. The novel is by Mona Susan Power (Standing Rock Sioux), PEN Award-winning author of several works related to Native identity, such as The Grass Dancer. The book was released through Mariner Books August 2023. A Council of Dolls was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction.

Plot summary

Шаблон:More plot Three generations of Dakota girls and their dolls live through family and societal change. The girls and dolls can talk to each other, and the dolls have powers to help the girls through the tragedies they face.

Concept and creation

Author Mona Susan Power was guided by her family's own history with unwelcome government intervention into Native society and multigenerational experiences with Indian boarding schools. At times writing the novel was so emotional she would cry. The book was written during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The first draft was completed in four months following recovery from a broken arm. She was completing copy-edits in 2022.

A Council of Dolls was an expansion of an earlier story about dolls published in the Missouri Review called Naming Ceremony. Naming Ceremony was runner-up for the 2020 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize.

Release

Power held a launch party on publication day 8 August 2023 at the Birchbark Books event space Birchbark Bizhew in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews panned the book as "occasionally moving" but "steeped a little bit too long in sentimentality." A starred review by Publishers Weekly calls it a "story of survival that shines brightly," and says Power reveals a "deep knowledge of Indigenous history" and the book is a "keen" and "wrenching" depiction of boarding schools.

The novel was featured on New Yorkers Best Books of 2023 and Good Housekeeping recommended A Council of Dolls as part of their "feel-good reads."

External links

• A Council of Dolls on author Mona Susan Power's website
• A Council of Dolls on publisher HarperCollins website
• Full text of preceding story Naming Ceremony published by The Missouri Review