This Town Sleeps, Dennis E. Staples
This Town Sleeps, Dennis E. Staples
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

This Town Sleeps
A Novel

Author: Dennis E. Staples

Narrator: Kaipo Schwab

Unabridged: 5 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/03/2020

Categories: Fiction, Lgbtq+, Indigenous

Synopsis

Set on a reservation in far northern Minnesota, This Town Sleeps explores the many ways history, culture, landscape, and lineage shape our lives, our understanding of the world we inhabit, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of it all.

On an Ojibwe reservation called Languille Lake, within the small town of Geshig at the hub of the rez, two men enter into a secret romance. Marion Lafournier, a midtwenties gay Ojibwe man, begins a relationship with his former classmate Shannon, a heavily closeted white man. While Marion is far more open about his sexuality, neither is immune to the realities of the lives of gay men in small towns and closed societies.

Then one night, while roaming the dark streets of Geshig, Marion unknowingly brings to life the spirit of a dog from beneath the elementary school playground. The mysterious revenant leads him to the grave of Kayden Kelliher, an Ojibwe basketball star who was murdered at the young age of seventeen and whose presence still lingers in the memories of the townsfolk. While investigating the fallen hero's death, Marion discovers family connections and an old Ojibwe legend that may be the secret to unraveling the mystery he has found himself in.

About Dennis E. Staples

Dennis E. Staples is an Ojibwe writer from Bemidji, Minnesota. He graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts with an MFA in fiction. He is a graduate of the 2018 Clarion West Writers Workshop and a recipient of the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship. His work has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction and Nightmare magazine. He is a member of the Red Lake Nation. This Town Sleeps is his first book.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cece on April 20, 2020

Feeling frustrated and unsure about this book, so I'm going with 3/5 overall. Here's the thing: this book was pitched to me as a story about Marion. And all the stuff going on with Marion, that whole storyline? Brilliant. But I think the narrative got lost with the addition of so many points of view......more

Goodreads review by Stitching on July 09, 2024

I really enjoyed this book in general. It being a queer book with an exploration of family ties/being of a place and of the nature of ghosts/what haunts us reminded me a little of my longtime favorite; Ghost Town by Kevin Chen, even the pacing and multiple POVs were kind of similar so I was really i......more

Goodreads review by Kasa on January 16, 2020

Books by native American authors about their interconnected experience in today's world are always revelatory, and this one maybe more than most. Dennis Staples recounts the story of Marion Lafournier, who is out and at ease in his skin but searching for love on the internet. When an old still close......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on June 03, 2020

3.5 stars. A literary ghost story/crime novel. I think this one appeals more to the lit fic set than the crime reader set. The structure is quite loose and the plot is not linear. Yes I know lots of crime novels have non-linear plots, but this also doesn't have a strong sense of momentum, either. Th......more

Goodreads review by Lauren on January 21, 2020

I so, so enjoyed this beautifully written, unique little novel about life on the Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota. It’s a mystery, a history, and a little bit of a love story, wrapped into one quiet, pensive book. The main character, Marion Lafournier, is a young gay Ojibwe man, not quite in touch wi......more

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