And Then She Fell

August 14, 2023
Elliott (A Mind Spread Out on the Ground) expertly mines the challenges faced by a Mohawk woman as her world threatens to fall apart in this ambitious offering. New mother Alice has moved from the Six Nations reservation to Toronto with her white husband, Steve, and their newborn, Dawn, but now lives with an “inescapable feeling of hopelessness.” As Alice tries to write a “modern retelling of the Haudenosaunee Creation Story” while surrounded by racist neighbors, she feels disconnected from her baby, processes guilt over her mother’s recent death, and worries she’s just a trophy wife as Steve pursues tenure as an anthropologist studying Mohawk culture (“Everything Indigenous seems to have more value when it’s utilized by white folks”). Meanwhile, a voice first heard in childhood through the Disney movie character Pocahontas has begun communicating with Alice once again, as are trees and insects, and she inadvertently discovers a portal to another world. As the reality Alice is clinging to becomes more unstable, she must interpret the creation story for herself to understand the importance of her own life and those of other Mohawk women. This novel is part time travel and part horror, as full of heart as it is bold. Agent: Stephanie Sinclair, CookeMcDermid.