Indians on Vacation by Thomas King

OLA Evergreen Award, International Dublin Literary Award, Indigo Best Books of the Year, Governor General’s Literary Award, Globe & Mail 100: Our Favourite Books of 2020,
Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada, CBC Books: Best Canadian Fiction of 2020

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.

Critical Praise
"Reading Thomas King's INDIANS ON VACATION. Great grumpy dialogue + killer one-liners! Remind me not to irritate him. @HarperCollinsCA" - @MargaretAtwood

“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.” - Drew Hayden Taylor, author of Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

“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.” - Toronto Star

“Funny and deeply sensitive…. Indians on Vacation presses sharply against the world with humour and heart – personalized demons and all.” - Quill & Quire (starred review)

"Indians on Vacation is a witty, funny striking story that ponders the importance of history from the smallest personal connections to big-picture politics."
- Vancouver Sun

“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.” - Daniel A. Robertson, author of Black Water

“[Bird and Mimi] are winning, funny protagonists: bickering, falling ill, eating bad food and confronting old truths. A sly and wise book.” - Chatelaine

“King . . . winner of the RBC Taylor Prize for The Inconvenient Indian, offers armchair travel and wry observational truths about contemporary life in equal measure." - Zoomer Magazine

Paperback, 528 pages

THOMAS KING is one of Canada's premier Native public intellectuals. King was the first Aboriginal person to deliver the prestigious Massey Lectures, and is also the bestselling, award-winning author of six novels, two collections of short stories and two nonfiction books. He won the 2014 Governor General's Award for Literature for his most recent novel, The Back of the Turtle. His non-fiction tour de force, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America won the BC National Award for Canadian Non Fiction and the RBC Taylor Prize, as well as being a finalist for 2015 CBC Canada Reads. He is a recipient of the Order of Canada. He lives in Guelph, ON.