Another Name for Red, Amber BlaeserWardzala
Another Name for Red, Amber BlaeserWardzala
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Another Name for Red

Author: Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

Narrator: Amber Blaeser-Wardzala

Unabridged: TBD

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/13/2026

Synopsis

The debut novel by one of the bestselling Never Whistle at Night’s most memorable contributors, in which, after a young Anishinaabe woman vanishes, her sister tries to pick up the pieces of her broken family, even as her investigations put her at risk of suffering a similar fate.

Middle Sister is haunted by everyone in her community who has disappeared—as well as those who remain. Her ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend are walking relics of the girl she used to be, while her family—her activist mother, checked-out father, and attention-starved younger siblings—are reminders of the elder sister she can never live up to. Then there’s John Smith, the infamous white man with red cowboy boots living on stolen reservation land, whose obsessive attentions are as repellant as they are compelling. But most of all, there are the thousands of unacknowledged missing and murdered Indigenous women, including Older Sister, whose year-long absence from the reservation has torn her remaining family apart.

With local authorities proving useless, Middle Sister decides to start an investigation of her own, beginning with the mysterious “Eric”—a white man from a neighboring town who Older Sister claimed to love, and who she swore loved her. Attempting to hunt down the correct white Eric in the haystack of Minnesota forces Middle Sister to seek help from the community from which she’s grown alienated, starting with her coworker, Casanova; a stray rez dog; and Nookomis, her grandmother who’s foreseen her own death. Yet John still lurks in the growing wintry shadows, offering a sort of surrender that Middle Sister can’t help being drawn to. In the end, she must choose: either let the guilt consume her or forgive herself and fight.

About The Author

Amber Blaeser-Wardzala is an Anishinaabe writer, beadwork artist, and jingle dress dancer. She is a first-degree descendant of White Earth Nation in Minnesota and grew up in southeastern Wisconsin. She received her MFA from Arizona State University and was the 2024-25 George Bennett Fellow at Phillips Exeter Academy. Her writing has appeared in Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology, The Iowa Review, Joyland, Passages North, CRAFT, and others. She has received support from Storyknife Writers Retreat, Vermont Studio Center, the Hambidge Center, Ragdale Foundation, Write On Door County, the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands, the Virginia G. Piper Center, and the Women’s National Book Association. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Fiction at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio where she lives with her overactive dog, Fern.

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Quotes

“Another Name for Red is a beautifully written, poignant and propulsive debut novel about loss, hope, and the difficult relationships in the life of an Anishinaabe woman. I absolutely devoured this novel. Amber Blaeser-Wardzala is an engaging and extraordinary new voice in Native American literature. You will not be able to put this book down!”
—Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist and author of The Removed

 “A beautiful and harrowing page-turner, Another Name for Red has a thriller's pace and an elegiac heart. Middle Sister's guilt, rage, and underlying strength propel the reader through this story of a missing young woman, whose tragic disappearance is part of something much bigger.”
—Anna North, New York Times bestselling author of Outlawed and Bog Queen

 “A powerful debut that is both fearless and heartfelt, an unflinching exploration of the missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis as well as the tireless pursuit of justice for those we love. Amber Blaeser-Wardzala puts her heart on these pages, which will stay with readers long after the final one is turned.”
—Vanessa Lillie, bestselling author of Blood Sisters

"A vivid and compelling story of a family, a community, and a young woman still coming to terms with her grief as she sets out to uncover the truth about her missing sister. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down."
—Jane Pek, author of The Verifiers

 “Another Name for Red is the haunting story of a family, nearly broken in the aftermath of a daughter's disappearance. Blaeser-Wardzala writes with fierce intelligence about desire and obsession, survival and surrender, alienation and—through absence and grief—the possibility of repair. A remarkable story of home and heartbreak, Another Name for Red is as tender in its love for its characters as it is unsparing in its portrayal of the forces that fail them.”
—Eliana Ramage, author of To the Moon and Back

 “This novel held me tightly from page one with its brilliantly crafted story of violence, consequences, alienation, and corrupted desire. But it wasn’t until it let me go that I understood the promises it had silently made and solemnly kept. Another Name for Red showed up to put mending stitches into a wide rip in the world.”
—Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic

 “Amber Blaeser-Wardzala’s Another Name for Red is a dynamic and daring debut novel. It’s at once a heart-thrumming mystery, a moving reckoning of the generational harms perpetrated against Native Americans, and a revelation of the ways young women must navigate the perils of male power. It’s also a revelatory testament to the sustaining force of native culture. The book’s characters are indelible, none more so than its complicated and compelling heroine Middle Sister. This is ambitious, important work by a writer with great heart and the talent to match.”
—Mitchell S. Jackson, author of The Residue Years

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