Last Updated on October 22, 2025
Residents Justine Parezo, Diana Dunaway and Lenora Urie present a panel discussion on Wandering Stars: A Novel, by Tommy Orange. [New York: Knopf, 2024], Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 7 PM in the Auditorium. This is their review published in the November issue of The Sunburst.
In his earlier novel, There There, author Tommy Orange took us into the world of urban Native Americans as they search for identity and struggle to survive. Their stories both confirm and challenge the ethnic stereotypes we hold, prompting readers to examine the shifting values around race and identity in this era of profound cultural change.
Orange’s new novel, Wandering Stars, wraps itself around the characters of There There in a narrative that is both a prequel and sequel to their stories. Spanning 150 years, the story takes us into a bloody massacre, an “Indian Industrial School,” and the present-day scene in Oakland, California. It’s also an absorbing intergenerational saga that explores the impact of ancestry, raising questions that lead us to seek clarification of our own identities, and what it means to be an American.
Author Tommy Orange is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for his debut novel, There There, which won the 2019 National Book Award and was the subject of a previous Charlestown book review. He was a recipient, most recently, of a MacArthur Fellowship Grant.
Residents Justine Parezo, Diana Dunaway, and Lenora Urie are lifelong learners and professionals in the fields of education (Justine), social work (Diana), and nursing (Lenora). Together, in a panel-discussion format, they will explore the very human issues of identity, survival, and resilience that Wandering Stars brings to the fore.