A Yellow Raft in Blue Water - Softcover

"Earns admiration from first page to last...Suspenseful, constantly gripping, original in its characters and settings, and finally, profoundly moving." --People

"The writing here is powerful and deeply evocative of scene and place. Michael Dorris has created a set of characters so real that they seem to acquire lives of their own, almost, off the printed page." --Mademoiselle

"Dazzling." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Spellbinding." --Los Angeles Times

"Memorable...Marvelous." --The Washington Post Book World

"Vivid, intense...straight from the heart." --Newsday (New York)

Set in Seattle and on a Montana reservation, 'A Yellow Raft in Blue Water' spans forty years and tells of three generations of indomitable women: Rafona, a self-reliant runaway set adrift from her family at the age of fifteen; Christine, her mother, headstrong and hedonistic; and Ida, the proud matriarch of their clan. Ominously powerful family secrets from the distant past haunt their present lives, testing to the limit the bittersweet bonds of love and kinship.

Also available in Flamingo: 'Working Men' and 'The Crown of Columbus' (co-written with Louise Erdrich)

'The three women who move through the pages of 'A Yellow Raft in Blue Water', Michael Dorris's spellbinding first novel, are as unlike – and as kindred – as three kinds of fuel in the same fire. Dorris's writing is energetic, understated and seductive. He has made an elegant weaving.'
LOS ANGELES TIMES

'Dorris has a remarkably fertile and wonderfully off-beat imagination. There is nothing predictable about this book; the plot turns and leaps in devious and unexpected ways... the novel is filled with dazzling images. 'A Yellow Raft in Blue Water' will entertain and enlighten you. It's great fun and a fine piece of work.'
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Michael Dorris's writing has the capacity to startle, with strong, almost dream-like images. He has used the multiple-perspective narration to create three portraits of remarkable psychological density ... He is a persuasive storyteller.'
NEW YORK TIMES