Cherokee America

February 1, 2019
Cherokee Check America Singer is a middle-aged, half-white, half-Cherokee woman raising her five children as white in the Cherokee Nation West (present-day Oklahoma) in 1875. Heredity and wealth allow this and, augmented by Check's intelligence, combine to make her a powerful woman. Her network of relatives and relationships includes Cherokee, white, and freed Black people and extends across two states. The novel has many characters with whom Check interacts throughout her day, and there is not a single stereotype among them. Through Check's eyes, her dozens of friends and neighbors convey a story, a memory, or a dilemma that activates an appropriate or necessary reaction from her?some of which may change lives. Then, in a mystery told in several layers, a girl is kidnapped and a man is killed. Although Check is the last to know what really happened, her courage tells us everything we need to know about this wise woman. This complicated, engrossing story of the post-Civil War West is a prequel to Verble's Pulitzer Prize finalist, Maud's Line (2016), but stands on its own.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2019

In 1875 in the Cherokee Nation West, a baby and a bay horse, a black hired hand and a preacher, gold and a gun have all gone missing. And that's just the start of troubles for Cherokee America Singer (aka Check), a tough farm woman and mother of five boys who must join with her mixed-race family and friends to banish one among them. Verble was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her debut novel, Maud's Line.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2019

In 1875, Cherokee America "Check" Singer is the mother of five sons and the matriarch of a successful family living with the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. Check works tirelessly to keep her family's place within the Cherokee Nation during a chaotic time: Check's husband, Andrew, a prominent potato farmer and white abolitionist, is dying, and Andrew's hired hand, an American named Puny, has gone missing after an affair with a local girl. With Puny's disappearance, rumors begin spreading through the Cherokee Nation that there's a stash of gold nearby, and Puny knows the location. A series of intertwined events, crimes, and hearsay brings U.S. Marshals into Indian territory, endangering all Check holds dear. Check, her household, and Cherokee neighbors form a fascinating and unforgettable community. VERDICT Verble, whose novel Maud's Line was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, provides historical context and rich details about the lives and relationships of Cherokees in Indian Territory after the Civil War. Highly recommended for readers of literary historical fiction in the vein of Lalita Tademy's Citizen's Creek and Paulette Jiles's News of the World. [See Prepub Alert, 8/20/18.]--Emily Hamstra, Seattle

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.