Inanimate friends in 'A Council of Dolls': FICTION: Mona Susan Power's novel spans a century of generational trauma and survival among Indigenous women.

Special to the Star Tribune

Dolls play a significant role in Native American culture, and in "A Council of Dolls," Mona Susan Power's moving new novel, they give comfort to generations of Indigenous women struggling to connect with their history and themselves.

Three dolls and three women are at the center of this story, and the PEN award winner's narrative floats between the past and present as she writes about the historical events and generational trauma that inform the women's lives.

An enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Power excavates her family history to imbue this novel with authenticity. Her mother's knowledge of the family stretched back to the late 1880s when Power's grandmother was alive. She and Power's grandfather were...