Brandon Hobson's "Where the Dead Sit Talking" Is a Coming of Age Novel of a Native Amer. Boy in Foster Care

 Brandon Hobson's novel "Where the Dead Sit Talking" was a selected as a finalist for the Nat'l Book Award ('18).  Hobson's beautifully voiced narrative is set in 1980s rural OK.  Sequoyah is a young Cherokee boy whose single mother struggles with alcohol & drugs land her in prison and sends Sequoyah into the social system which has him in & out of shelters & various foster homes.  He loved his mother despite her haphazard lifestyle and the accidental scarring of his face she caused by splattering bacon grease.  His facial disfigurement sets him further apart from others.  Sequoyah narrates with an authentic dispassion that served to shield him from perpetual displacement.  Sequoyah believes everything that happens in his life is his fault.  His pain & loneliness make him feel invisible. He wants to become someone else entirely.  He couldn't allow himself to feel sad for his mom being in prison.  He grew used to being separated from her.  Still, he clung to the hope of being reunited knowing it wouldn't happen.  Sequoyah's lyrical plaintive voice is deeply moving.  While at his mother's probation hearing which was denied "She turned and looked at me which destroyed me.  I was overwhelmed by grief & couldn't bear to feel anything more."  Sequoyah tries to convince himself it's better to feel empty but he yearns for a friend, a connection a safe haven.  His fear of people leaving him is constant.  His desire to appease whatever family takes him in is aching for the reader.   How can he get his foster families to like him and make him feel welcome?  The shelters where he was placed were cold, dead and lonely, filled with a sadness he couldn't bear. In most foster homes he felt as if he were a chore and not worth the money they were paid.  At age 15 Sequoyah is placed with the Troutt family who have 2 other foster children; George & Rosemary.  George is Sequoyah's age & they share a room.  George has debilitating trauma of his own.  Rosemary is slightly older and of Cherokee lineage.  Sequoyah forms a strong attachment to Rosemary that is anchored by hope & grief.  He is struck by the strength of grief which seemed to hold him together.  "Where the Dead Sit Talking" is a magnificent work suffused with melancholy & lyricism.  Spending much of his time in solitude he listened for the voices of his ancestors who spoke of secrets and the future. "When I spoke to them they listened.  Staring up at me with huge, watery eyes, I talked to them when I was afraid or angry or hurting."  Hobson is a member of the Cherokee Nation Tribe.  His masterful novel is powerfully wrenching.  It's imbued with dignity along with the suffering  of growing up without a permanent home.