Indians on Vacation : A Novel
Author(s): Thomas King
A #1 Indie bestseller and a Canadian bestseller for 22 weeks, the brilliant latest novel from one of Canada’s foremost authors
Inspired by a handful of postcards sent nearly a hundred years ago, Bird and Mimi attempt to trace long-lost uncle Leroy and the family medicine bundle he took with him to Europe.
“I’m sweaty and sticky. My ears are still popping from the descent into Vaclav Havel. My sinuses ache. My stomach is upset. My mouth is a sewer. I roll over and bury my face in a pillow. Mimi snuggles down beside me with no regard for my distress.
‘My god,’ she whispers, ‘can it get any better?’”
By turns witty, sly and poignant, this is the unforgettable tale of one couple’s holiday in Europe, where their wanderings through its famous capitals reveal a complicated history, both personal and political.
Review(s):
"Reading Thomas King's INDIANS ON VACATION. Great grumpy dialogue + killer one-liners! Remind me not to irritate him. @HarperCollinsCA"
“The beauty of King’s writing is that, like all good authors, it seems effortless. Like those words always have and always should be in that specific order on the page, and that was the way the great literary gods planned it. . . .I like reading Tom King because he does, succinctly and cleverly, what all good writers should do – he educates, illuminates and entertains with every paragraph.”
“From the first page, King’s sardonic and very funny voice leads us to places we never expect to go. . . European and Indigenous history collide and there’s no one better to examine the aftermath.”
“Funny and deeply sensitive…. Indians on Vacation presses sharply against the world with humour and heart – personalized demons and all.”
"Indians on Vacation is a witty, funny striking story that ponders the importance of history from the smallest personal connections to big-picture politics."
“As more and more Indigenous writers create new and exciting works, trailblazers like King have endured. Canada, in turn, is better for it. . . . I could spend my time dissecting the skill in King’s writing, how he layers complex ideas and themes underneath his trademark humour (which is pretty much unmatched). . . . [R]eaders find essential truths King has laced within the narrative thread.”
“[Bird and Mimi] are winning, funny protagonists: bickering, falling ill, eating bad food and confronting old truths. A sly and wise book.”
“King . . . winner of the RBC Taylor Prize for The Inconvenient Indian, offers armchair travel and wry observational truths about contemporary life in equal measure."
CBC Books: Best Canadian Fiction of 2020, Globe & Mail 100: Our Favourite Books of 2020, Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, Indigo Best Books of the Year, OLA Evergreen Award, Governor General’s Literary Award, Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, International Dublin Literary Award, Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada
ISBN: 9781443465465