
The Removed
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.89
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
By:
-
Brandon Hobson
About this listen
“A haunted work, full of voices old and new. It is about a family’s reckoning with loss and injustice, and it is about a people trying for the same. The journey of this family’s way home is full - in equal measure - of melancholy and love.” (Tommy Orange, author of There There)
A Recommended Book From
USA Today * O, the Oprah Magazine * Entertainment Weekly * TIME * Harper's Bazaar * Buzzfeed * Washington Post * Elle * Parade * San Francisco Chronicle * Good Housekeeping * Vulture * Refinery29 * AARP * Kirkus * PopSugar * Alma * Woman's Day * Chicago Review of Books * The Millions * Biblio Lifestyle * Library Journal * Publishers Weekly * LitHub
Steeped in Cherokee myths and history, a novel about a fractured family reckoning with the tragic death of their son long ago - from National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson
In the fifteen years since their teenage son, Ray-Ray, was killed in a police shooting, the Echota family has been suspended in private grief. The mother, Maria, increasingly struggles to manage the onset of Alzheimer’s in her husband, Ernest. Their adult daughter, Sonja, leads a life of solitude, punctuated only by spells of dizzying romantic obsession. And their son, Edgar, fled home long ago, turning to drugs to mute his feelings of alienation.
With the family’s annual bonfire approaching - an occasion marking both the Cherokee National Holiday and Ray-Ray’s death, and a rare moment in which they openly talk about his memory - Maria attempts to call the family together from their physical and emotional distances once more. But as the bonfire draws near, each of them feels a strange blurring of the boundary between normal life and the spirit world. Maria and Ernest take in a foster child who seems to almost miraculously keep Ernest’s mental fog at bay. Sonja becomes dangerously fixated on a man named Vin, despite - or perhaps because of - his ties to tragedy in her lifetime and lifetimes before. And in the wake of a suicide attempt, Edgar finds himself in the mysterious Darkening Land: a place between the living and the dead, where old atrocities echo.
Drawing deeply on Cherokee folklore, The Removed seamlessly blends the real and spiritual to excavate the deep reverberations of trauma - a meditation on family, grief, home, and the power of stories on both a personal and ancestral level.
“The Removed is a marvel. With a few sly gestures, a humble array of piercingly real characters and an apparently effortless swing into the dire dreamlife, Brandon Hobson delivers an act of regeneration and solace. You won’t forget it.” (Jonathan Lethem, author of The Feral Detective)
©2021 Brandon Hobson (P)2021 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Night of the Living Rez
- By: Morgan Talty
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy.
-
-
Powerful and Candid Story
- By M on 07-15-22
By: Morgan Talty
-
Winter Counts
- A Novel
- By: David Heska Wanbli Weiden
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.
-
-
Very disappointed
- By Abigail M on 09-20-20
-
There There
- A Novel
- By: Tommy Orange
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Ceurvo, and others
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will perform in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss.
-
-
Highly recommend.
- By Rachel S on 07-09-18
By: Tommy Orange
-
The Sentence
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention", must solve the mystery of this haunting.
-
-
Addictive and surprising
- By Amazon Customer on 11-25-21
By: Louise Erdrich
-
What Comes After
- A Novel
- By: JoAnne Tompkins
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins, Kristen DiMercurio, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In misty, coastal Washington State, Isaac lives alone with his dog, grieving the recent death of his teenage son, Daniel. Next door, Lorrie, a working single mother, struggles with a heinous act committed by her own teenage son. Separated by only a silvery stretch of trees, the two parents are emotionally stranded, isolated by their great losses - until an unfamiliar 16-year-old girl shows up, bridges the gap, and changes everything.
-
-
Thin story line, too long.
- By Sandra Crews on 11-04-21
By: JoAnne Tompkins
-
The Round House
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Gary Farmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
-
-
Heavy in My Heart
- By Mel on 01-02-13
By: Louise Erdrich
-
Night of the Living Rez
- By: Morgan Talty
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy.
-
-
Powerful and Candid Story
- By M on 07-15-22
By: Morgan Talty
-
Winter Counts
- A Novel
- By: David Heska Wanbli Weiden
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment, the kind that’s hard to forget. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s own nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop.
-
-
Very disappointed
- By Abigail M on 09-20-20
-
There There
- A Novel
- By: Tommy Orange
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Ceurvo, and others
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will perform in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss.
-
-
Highly recommend.
- By Rachel S on 07-09-18
By: Tommy Orange
-
The Sentence
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Louise Erdrich's latest novel, The Sentence, asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention", must solve the mystery of this haunting.
-
-
Addictive and surprising
- By Amazon Customer on 11-25-21
By: Louise Erdrich
-
What Comes After
- A Novel
- By: JoAnne Tompkins
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins, Kristen DiMercurio, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In misty, coastal Washington State, Isaac lives alone with his dog, grieving the recent death of his teenage son, Daniel. Next door, Lorrie, a working single mother, struggles with a heinous act committed by her own teenage son. Separated by only a silvery stretch of trees, the two parents are emotionally stranded, isolated by their great losses - until an unfamiliar 16-year-old girl shows up, bridges the gap, and changes everything.
-
-
Thin story line, too long.
- By Sandra Crews on 11-04-21
By: JoAnne Tompkins
-
The Round House
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Gary Farmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
-
-
Heavy in My Heart
- By Mel on 01-02-13
By: Louise Erdrich
-
Crazy Brave
- A Memoir
- By: Joy Harjo
- Narrated by: Joy Harjo
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this transcendent memoir, grounded in tribal myth and ancestry, music and poetry, Joy Harjo, one of our leading Native American voices, details her journey to becoming a poet. Born in Oklahoma, Harjo grew up learning to dodge an abusive stepfather by finding shelter in her imagination, a deep spiritual life, and connection with the natural world. She attended an Indian arts boarding school, where she nourished an appreciation for painting, music, and poetry; gave birth while still a teenager; and struggled on her own as a single mother, eventually finding her poetic voice.
-
-
Highly recommend
- By Firedancer on 06-29-19
By: Joy Harjo
-
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
- A Novel
- By: Zoraida Córdova
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers - not for graduations, weddings, or baptisms. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed into a ceiba tree, leaving them with more questions than answers.
-
-
Magical Realism Weirdness
- By @abagoflit on 09-08-21
By: Zoraida Córdova
-
Empire of Wild
- A Novel
- By: Cherie Dimaline
- Narrated by: Michelle St. John
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joan has been searching for her missing husband, Victor, for nearly a year - ever since that terrible night they’d had their first serious argument hours before he mysteriously vanished. Her Métis family has lived in their tightly knit rural community for generations, but no one keeps the old ways...until they have to. That moment has arrived for Joan. One morning, grieving and severely hungover, Joan hears a shocking sound coming from inside a revival tent in a gritty Walmart parking lot. It is the unmistakable voice of Victor.
-
-
Almost had it…
- By kisa on 04-16-22
By: Cherie Dimaline
-
How Far to the Promised Land
- One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South
- By: Esau McCaulley
- Narrated by: Esau McCaulley
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class.
-
-
An excellent story of Redemption
- By James Carmichael on 09-23-23
By: Esau McCaulley
-
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
- A Novel
- By: Heather Morris
- Narrated by: Richard Armitage
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (German for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners. Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism - but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.
-
-
A hopeful perspective on a harrowing time
- By melyssa57 (A Page Before Bedtime dot com) on 10-10-18
By: Heather Morris
-
Between the World and Me
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of Black women and men - bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a Black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son.
-
-
A Heartfelt Self-aware Literary Masterpiece
- By T Spencer on 07-30-15
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
Ceremony
- By: Leslie Marmon Silko
- Narrated by: Pete Bradbury
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leslie Marmon Silko's sublime Ceremony is almost universally considered one of the finest novels ever written by an American Indian. It is the poetic, dreamlike tale of Tayo, a mixed-blood Laguna Pueblo and veteran of World War II. Tormented by shell shock and haunted by memories of his cousin who died in the war, Tayo struggles on his impoverished reservation. After turning to alcohol to ease his pain, he strives for a better understanding of who he is.
-
-
Worth a re-read
- By Mariah on 02-02-09
-
Hunting by Stars
- (A Marrow Thieves Novel)
- By: Cherie Dimaline
- Narrated by: Meegwun Fairbrother, Michelle St. John
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Years ago, when plagues and natural disasters killed millions of people, much of the world stopped dreaming. Without dreams, people are haunted, sick, mad, unable to rebuild. The government soon finds that the Indigenous people of North America have retained their dreams, an ability rumored to be housed in the very marrow of their bones. Soon, residential schools pop up — or are re-opened — across the land to bring in the dreamers and harvest their dreams.
-
-
Excellent story!
- By Amazon Customer on 02-01-25
By: Cherie Dimaline
-
Hollywood Park
- A Memoir
- By: Mikel Jollett
- Narrated by: Mikel Jollett
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hollywood Park is a remarkable memoir of a tumultuous life. Mikel Jollett was born into one of the country’s most infamous cults and subjected to a childhood filled with poverty, addiction, and emotional abuse. Yet, ultimately, his is a story of fierce love and family loyalty told in a raw, poetic voice that signals the emergence of a uniquely gifted writer.
-
-
An honest and heartbreakingly beautiful memoir
- By Jeannete Coronel on 05-28-20
By: Mikel Jollett
-
The Water Dancer (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her - but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known. So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North.
-
-
We Must Always Remember
- By Cammie on 09-28-19
By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
-
We Were the Lucky Ones
- By: Georgia Hunter
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati, Robert Fass
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-seller with more than one million copies sold worldwide. Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive - and to reunite - We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds. It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer.
-
-
Love it but...
- By Roz on 07-19-17
By: Georgia Hunter
-
Warrior Girl Unearthed
- By: Angeline Boulley
- Narrated by: Isabella Star LaBlanc
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perry Firekeeper-Birch was ready for her Summer of Slack but instead, after a fender bender that was entirely not her fault, she’s stuck working to pay back her Auntie Daunis for repairs to the Jeep. Thankfully she has the other outcasts of the summer program. Together they ace obstacle courses, plan vigils for missing women in the community, and make sure summer doesn’t feel so lost after all. But when she attends a meeting at a local university, Perry learns about the “Warrior Girl”, an ancestor whose bones and knife are stored in the museum archives, and everything changes.
-
-
Captivating!!
- By Nova❤ on 06-01-23
By: Angeline Boulley
What listeners say about The Removed
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Zoraida Fuentes
- 05-17-21
Mystical and Earthly- outstanding
This novel was wonderful! It spoke with my soul. The narrators were essential to brining the characters to life. The Cherokee references and the strength shared throughout the family took me to place of peace and tradition. Well done Brandon Hobson. Looking forward for your others novels!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Norita
- 10-11-21
grief, fear, love, hope, past & present intermingl
I'm so glad I listened to this book. The intermingling of so many senses and emotions in this story were incredible. I'm in awe with this story and how the past and present were tied together allowing for a hopeful future.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cecilia Martinez-Gil
- 01-17-22
Brandon Hobson’s The Removed - The Call of Our Home
But Hobson’s The Removed is about the Echota, a Cherokee family struggling to reclaim the memory of their son and sibling, a highly evolved teenager who was killed in a police shooting. The reclaiming of Ray-Ray memory is a metaphor for the recovery, restoration, and re-emergence of Indigenous peoples to these lands now known as America. The novel walks the timeline towards the bonfire ritual to preserve ancestral memory. The Removed is highly lyrical and a metafiction, merging stories from myth, fairy tales, and Cherokee legends and tales. Hobson’s poetic lens spellbinds me as his language expresses truth and justice via the relationship of being and place timely and timelessly, as this novel is.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tessa
- 05-16-22
Hauntingly Beautiful
With echoes of two of my all time favorites, A Prayer for Owen Meany and A Yellow Raft in Blue Water, The Removed is unique, beautifully written, and was performed by each narrator with heart-touching depth and sincerity. In its physical form, this novel would never end up in a box to be donated to the library or thrift store: it would remain on a shelf in the collection of those rare literary treasures to be read again… and again.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Emily Kisch
- 12-03-22
Poetic
This book was so beautifully written. You feel so connected to the characters and their stories.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Shane Hawk
- 02-12-21
A harrowing story of generational trauma
Hobson writes so beautifully. His characters all felt real and compelling. Loved his inclusion of Cherokee lore, some of which extends to other tribes like my own. I will always fear owls, haha.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Pamela
- 08-22-21
Best. Narration. Ever. Magical realism at its best.
I have listened to, literally, thousands of audio books and unquestionably the ensemble that performs “The Removed” is the best. This would mean nothing, however, if the source material was not itself exceptional. Brandon Hobson somehow manages to plumb the truth, pain and dislocation of the Trail Where They Cried with a steadfast hand while telling a modern day story. “The Removed” is, among many other things a plea for the empathy our society is still so lacking today but this book never takes the easy path and never goes for cheap sentiment. Every tear I cried, Hobson, and the truth of this history, earned. I loved these characters more than I can say. Not since William Kinsella’s “Shoeless Joe” has magical realism been this magical or this real. Read this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Landin
- 05-14-21
Richly told story with surprise ending
First off the narration was stellar for this book-four separate voices worked together to tell this story. I was taken by the complexity used to weave the Cherokee history and oral legacy with the issues that modern Cherokee families face-from racism to erasure to mental health and medical health. Very worth the listen!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 09-20-21
How a people are forever changed
Continued injustice yet searching for answer's and forgiveness. Struggled with some of the separate reading of each person.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cynthia
- 03-28-21
Painfully beautiful
The format might seem hard to follow at the beginning, the narration of the story from each of the characters point of view might seem so different, but I love how they merge at the end to reveal a painfully beautiful story of how each of the characters mourns Ray ray. I definitely recommend this beautiful book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful