Another name for red: a novel

By: Blaeser-Wardzala, Amber

Published by Pantheon Books, 2026

"Middle Sister is haunted by ghosts, many of whom are still living. Her ex-best friend and ex-boyfriend are walking relics of the girl she used to be, while her family-her activist mother, checked-out father, and attention-starved younger siblings-are reminders of the elder sister she can never live up to. Then there's John Smith, the infamous white man with red cowboy boots living on stolen reservation land, whose obsessive attentions are as repellent as they are compelling. But most of all, there are the thousands of unacknowledged missing and murdered Indigenous women, including Older Sister, whose year-long absence from the reservation has torn her remaining family apart. As the living ghosts draw closer, Middle Sister decides to start haunting them back: in particular the mysterious "Eric"-a white man from a neighboring town who Older Sister claimed to love, and who she swore loved her. Attempting to hunt down the correct white Eric in the haystack of Minnesota forces Middle Sister to seek help from the community from which she's grown alienated, starting with her coworker, Casanova; a stray rez dog; and Nookomis, her grandmother who's foreseen her own death. Yet John still lurks in the growing wintry shadows, offering a sort of surrender that Middle Sister can't help being drawn to. In the end, she must choose: either let the guilt consume her or forgive herself and fight"-- Provided by publisher.