Native American/First Nation Fiction

New and recommended fiction by Native American/First Nation authors

Updated September 19, 2025
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Swim home to the vanished
Basham, Brendan Shay
Paper Book
" After the death of his brother, a grief-stricken young man seeks refuge and oblivion in a secluded fishing village dominated by a family of brujas in this haunting debut novel, inspired, in part, by the ramifications of Diné history and thought--a mesmerizing, original tale in the tradition...
Better the blood
Bennett, Michael
Paper Book
Winner of the Ngaio Marsh First Novel Award An absorbing, clever debut thriller that speaks to the longstanding injustices faced by New Zealand's indigenous peoples, by an acclaimed Māori screenwriter and director A tenacious Māori detective, Hana Westerman...
To shape a dragon's breath
Blackgoose, Moniquill
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER . WINNER OF THE ASTOUNDING, NEBULA, AND LODESTAR AWARDS . FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AND BRITISH FANTASY NEWCOMER AWARDS . "My favorite book of the year . . . a coming-of-age story that is cozy and hair-raising in equal measure."-Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post
A broken blade
Blair, Melissa
Paper Book
The BookTok sensation from debut author Melissa Blair--now with exclusive bonus content!   "Gripping and fierce. This is much-needed fantasy with its fangs honed sharp by the power of resistance. Melissa Blair has built a tremendous world."--Chloe Gong, #1 New...
Even as we breathe : a novel
Clapsaddle, Annette Saunooke
Paper Book
Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville's luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as...
VenCo : a novel
Dimaline, Cherie
Paper Book
"Once I opened VenCo, I was propelled through an entire night of charmed reading. Cherie Dimaline creates a world utterly fantastical, yet real. VenCo is funny, tense, and cracking with a dark, divine energy."  ---Louise Erdrich, New York Times bestselling author of The...
The lost journals of Sacajewea : a novel
Earling, Debra Magpie
Paper Book
Winner of the Montana Book Award From the award-winning author of Perma Red comes a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajewea. "In my seventh winter,...
Shutter
Emerson, Ramona
Paper Book
Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases - she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward clues other investigators overlook. Rita's...
The mighty red : a novel
Erdrich, Louise
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK * LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION A Best Book of the Year: New York Times, The New Yorker, Time, Kirkus, Harper's Bazaar "A novel set in a small prairie community. . . that somehow also captures the...
Woman of light : a novel
Fajardo-Anstine, Kali
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A "dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical" (Roxane Gay) epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina  ...
Crooked hallelujah
Ford, Kelli Jo
Paper Book
"A book that you want to share with everyone you know and one that you are desperate to keep in your own possession. A masterful debut and a new and thrilling voice for readers across the globe." --Sarah Jessica Parker, on Instagram It's 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and fifteen...
Five little Indians
Good, Michelle
Paper Book
" Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support or...
The removed : a novel
Hobson, Brandon
Paper Book
"A haunted work, full of voices old and new. It is about a family's reckoning with loss and injustice, and it is about a people trying for the same. The journey of this family's way home is full--in equal measure--of melancholy and love." --Tommy Orange, author of There There ...
Calling for a blanket dance : a novel
Hokeah, Oscar
Paper Book
A moving and deeply engaging novel about a young Native American man as he learns to find strength in his familial identity. Told in a series of voices, Calling for a Blanket Dance takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational...
Bad Cree : a novel
Johns, Jessica
Paper Book
In this gripping, horror-laced debut, a young Cree woman's dreams lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home. "A mystery and a horror story about...
I was a teenage slasher
Jones, Stephen Graham
Paper Book
*USA TODAY Bestseller * Alex Award Winner * The "viciously clever, over-the-top, genre-skewing" (The New York Times Book Review) classic slasher story with a twist from Stephen Graham Jones, the master of modern horror and bestselling author of The...
Every drop is a man's nightmare : stories
Kakimoto, Megan Kamalei
Paper Book
Redemption
Ledford, Deborah J.
" An acclaimed story collection from the author of the Shirley Jackson Award-winning novel The Hole Six elephants bolt from an amusement park and vanish; where they're found brings back memories of a forgotten dictator. A car ride on a foggy...
Blood sisters
Lillie, Vanessa
Paper Book
A visceral and compelling mystery about a Cherokee archeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs who is summoned to rural Oklahoma to investigate the disappearance of two women...one of them her sister. There are secrets in the land. As an archeologist for the...
On the savage side : a novel
McDaniel, Tiffany
Paper Book
Six women--mothers, daughters, sisters--gone missing. Inspired by the unsolved murders of the Chillicothe Six, this harrowing novel tells the story of two sisters, both of whom could be the next victims, from the internationally best-selling author of Betty. ...
Indian burial ground
Medina, Nick
Paper Book
A man lunges in front of a car. An elderly woman silently drowns herself. A corpse sits up in its coffin and speaks. On this reservation, not all is what it seems, in this new spine-chilling mythological horror from the author of Sisters of the Lost Nation. All...
The truth according to Ember
Nava, Danica
Paper Book
Ember Lee Cardinal has not always been a liar - well, not for anything that counted at least. But her job search is not going well and when her resume is rejected for the thirty-seventh time, she takes matters into her own hands. She gets 'creative' listing her qualifications and answers the...
Wandering stars
Orange, Tommy
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The Pulitzer Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There ("Pure soaring beauty."The New York Times Book Review) delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into...
The berry pickers : a novel
Peters, Amanda
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize Winner Winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a mystery that will haunt the survivors, unravel a family,...
A grandmother begins the story
Porter, Michelle
Paper Book
Written like a crooked Métis jig, A Grandmother Begins the Story follows five generations of women and bison as they reach for the stories that could remake their worlds and rebuild their futures. Carter is a young mother, recently separated. She is curious, angry, and on a...
A council of dolls : a novel
Power, Mona Susan
Paper Book
The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award-winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day. From the mid-century metropolis of Chicago to the...
Greta & Valdin
Reilly, Rebecca K.
Paper Book
A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE * AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR "A heartfelt portrait of a complex family." --People * "Laugh-out-loud-funny." --Harper's Bazaar *...
Where they last saw her : a novel
Rendon, Marcie R.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the award-winning author of the Cash Blackbear series comes a compelling novel of a Native American woman who learns of the disappearance of one of her own and decides enough is enough. A WASHINGTON POST AND BOOK RIOT BEST BOOK OF THE...
Moon of the crusted snow : a novel
Rice, Waubgeshig
Paper Book
With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the council and community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south...
Tread of angels
Roanhorse, Rebecca
Paper Book
Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of advocatus diaboli, to defend her sister Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue, a member of the ruling class of this mining town, in a new world of dark fantasy from the New York Times bestselling...
Ceremony
Silko, Leslie Marmon
Paper Book
" The great Native American Novel of a battered veteran returning home to heal his mind and spirit, from celebrated author Leslie Marmon Silko Decades after its original publication, Ceremony remains one of the most profound and moving works of...
Fire exit : a novel
Talty, Morgan
Paper Book
From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine's Penobscot Reservation. He caught brief moments of his neighbor Elizabeth's life--from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there's something deeper and...
Stealing : a novel
Verble, Margaret
Paper Book
"This powerful novel should join classics like Ernest J. Gaines's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Helena Maria Viramontes's Under the Feet of Jesus, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird."--New York Times Book Review A gripping, gut-punch of a novel about a Cherokee...
Winter counts : a novel
Weiden, David Heska Wanbli
Ebook
ANTHONY AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL THRILLER AWARD WINNER FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE FOR BEST FIRST NOVEL "Winter Counts is a marvel. It's a thriller with a beating heart and jagged teeth."  --Tommy Orange, author of There There ...
Guardian angels & other monsters : stories
Wilson, Daniel H.
Paper Book
From theNew York Timesbestselling author ofRobopocalypsecomes a fascinating and fantastic collection that explores complex emotional and intellectual landscapes at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human life. A VINTAGE BOOKS ORIGINAL. In "All Kinds of...
Praiseworthy
Wright, Alexis
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2024 MILES FRANKLIN AWARD WINNER OF THE 2024 STELLA PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2024 JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE WINNER OF THE 2023 QUEENSLAND AWARD FOR LITERARY FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD In a small town in the north of Australia, a...
White horse
Wurth, Erika T.
Paper Book
"This ghost story is a perfect example of new wave horror that will also satisfy fans of classic Stephen King." --Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic Erika T. Wurth's White Horse is a gritty, vibrant novel about an...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.