A Yellow Raft in Blue Water

Michael Dorris has crafted a fierce saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship. Starting in the present day and moving backward, the novel is told in the voices of the three women: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her American Indian mother, Christine, consumed by tenderness and resentment toward those she loves; and the fierce and mysterious Ida, mother and grandmother whose haunting secrets, betrayals, and dreams echo through the years, braiding together the strands of the shared past.

Genre
literary fictionhistorical fictioncoming of agewomen’s fiction
Themes
native americandiversityafrican americanfamily
Setting
1980shigh schoolcollegeUSA
Audience
adultyoung adult
Length
medium · 372 pages

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