What is There There about?
This There There summary follows Tommy Orange's 2018 debut novel, published by Knopf on June 5. It sold roughly 48,000 copies across formats within its first month, hit #8 on the New York Times bestseller list, and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Orange, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma raised in Oakland, wrote the book as a polyphonic novel about urban Native American life — twelve narrators whose separate storylines converge at a single powwow.
What genre is There There by Tommy Orange?
It is literary fiction told through shifting first-, second-, and third-person narration, sometimes described as a multigenerational novel about Native American identity in a city rather than on a reservation. Readers drawn to its braided-family structure and inherited trauma should try Homegoing, which follows two lineages descended from one woman across centuries, or Kindred, which puts a modern Black woman face to face with her family's history of slavery.
How many narrators does There There have?
There There summary
This There There summary tracks twelve people converging on the Big Oakland Powwow at the Oakland Coliseum. Tony Loneman, who has fetal alcohol syndrome and lives with his grandmother, has been recruited into a robbery. Dene Oxendene is running a storytelling booth, continuing a documentary project his late uncle started to record Urban Indian stories. Opal Bear Shield, who survived the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz as a child, comes to secretly watch her great-nephew Orvil dance. Orvil, fourteen, has taught himself traditional dance from YouTube and plans to dance in the Grand Entry for the first time, wearing regalia he took from Opal's closet without asking.
Edwin Black, unemployed and hoping to meet the birth father he's never known, has joined the powwow committee. Jacquie Red Feather, eleven days sober, travels to the powwow with Harvey, the father of the daughter she gave up for adoption decades earlier — that daughter, Blue, is now the event's organizer, unaware Jacquie is her birth mother. Thomas Frank, recently fired and drinking again, comes to drum with a group called Southern Moon. Meanwhile Octavio Gomez, a drug dealer, plans to rob the powwow's cash safe using plastic guns his tech-savvy cousin Daniel Gonzales has 3D-printed, with Daniel watching the grounds from a drone and Tony, Calvin Johnson, Calvin's twin Charles, and Charles's friend Carlos pulled into the scheme.
How does There There end?
Who are the main characters in There There?
Tony Loneman: Twenty-one, born with fetal alcohol syndrome, drawn into the robbery plot by the drugs he sells for Octavio.
Dene Oxendene: Filmmaker continuing his late uncle's project to record Urban Indian stories.
Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield: Raises her sister's orphaned grandsons and carries memories of the Alcatraz occupation.
Orvil Red Feather: Fourteen, self-taught dancer, performing at his first powwow.
Jacquie Red Feather: Recovering alcoholic and Orvil's grandmother, reunited with the daughter she gave up decades ago.
Octavio Gomez: Drug dealer who plans the powwow robbery that ends the novel in gunfire.
Best quotes from There There by Tommy Orange
The most quoted lines from There There by Tommy Orange, checked against the Goodreads work-quotes page for this title:
"An Urban Indian belongs to the city, and cities belong to the earth ... Cities form in the same way as galaxies."
"Being Indian has never been about returning to the land. The land is everywhere or nowhere."
"And don't make the mistake of calling us resilient. To not have been destroyed, to not have given up, to have survived, is no badge of honor."
"We didn't have last names before they came. When they decided they needed to keep track of us, last names were given to us, just like the name 'INDIAN' itself was given to us."
"Crying is for when there's nothing else left to do."
Frequently asked questions
What does the title There There mean?
It references Gertrude Stein's line "there is no there there," written after she returned to a changed Oakland and found her childhood home gone. Orange applies it to Native people whose ancestral land is now buried under cities — there is no there there to return to. A second chapter also nods to Radiohead's song of the same name.
Is there a sequel to There There?
Yes. Wandering Stars, published in 2024, is a combined prequel and sequel, tracing the same family back to the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and forward into Orvil's recovery after the powwow shooting.
Who dies at the end of There There?
Octavio, Calvin, Charles, Carlos, Thomas Frank, Bill Davis, and Tony Loneman are all killed in the shootout. Orvil and Edwin Black are wounded but survive, with Wandering Stars later confirming Orvil pulls through.
What age is There There appropriate for?
Library classification services place it around grades 11–12, and it is commonly taught in high school English. It contains violence, alcohol and drug abuse, references to sexual assault and suicide, and strong language.
Did There There win any awards?
It won the 2019 PEN/Hemingway Award, the 2019 American Book Award, the 2018 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the 2019 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Why does Tommy Orange use twelve narrators?
The structure resists presenting Native American identity as one experience. By spreading the story across twelve very different lives — an addict, a filmmaker, a teenage dancer, a recovering alcoholic, a drummer — Orange shows a range of Urban Indian experience rather than a single representative one.
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