Fiction about Anthropologists

Barker, Pat (Great Britain) PR6052.A6488 R4
Regeneration New York: Plume, 1991
Set during World War I, the novel describes the attempts of a psychologist/forensic anthropologist to alleviate the war trauma of shell-shocked soldiers in order return them to the trenches. The doctor, W.H.R. Rivers is an historical figure as are several of his patients including the notable British poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.
 
Berlinski, Mischa (Thailand) PS3602.E75825 F54
Fieldwork New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008
An American reporter in Thailand searches for the truth behind the suicide of a woman anthropologist, imprisoned for supposedly committing murder.
 
Carpentier, Alejo (Cuba) PQ7389.C263 P313
The Lost Steps New York: Knopf, 1967
An unhappy New York composer undertakes an assignment to discover primitive musical instruments in the Amazonian jungle. There he finds people who live in harmony with their environment and a renewed creativity that civilization could not offer him.
 
Cramer, Rebecca (USA) PS3553.R268 M5
Mission to Sonora Sun Lakes: Book World Inc., 1998
A forensic anthropologist helps the police when a dead real estate developer's plans threaten her beloved Sonoran Desert.
 
Cramer, Rebecca (USA) PS3553.R268 V53
The View From Frog Mountain Sun Lakes: Book World, Inc., 2000
An anthropologist investigates the stealing of Native artifacts while assisting an old friend who is opening a bed and breakfast in Arizona.
 
De Heriz, Enrique (Spain) On Order
Lies New York: Doubleday, 2007
A Spanish anthropologist on a field trip to Guatemala is misidentified as a drowning victim. Rather than returning to her life, she accepts the error; her daughter, however is grieving and by the time she returns to her family, issues in a family come to a head.
 
Dombrovsky, Yuri (Russia) PG3476.D613 K48
The Keeper of Antiquities New York: McGraw Hill, 1969
An earnest archaeologist, living in internal exile in Kazakhstan, tries to keep out of serious trouble while the terror of Stalin's regime increases during the late '30's.
 
Hillerman, Tony (Native American) PS3558.I45 T47
Thief of Time New York: Harper & Row, 1988
When an anthropologist who has been removing pottery, while digging an unauthorized site goes missing, two Navajo police officers try to find her. the novel brings up issues of the removal of artifacts from sacred sites. Hillerman's next book Talking God deals with the display of Native remains in American museums.
 
Krueger, Michael (Germany) On Order
Himmelfarb New York: Braziller, 1993
A young German anthropologist during the Third Reich goes to South America where his Jewish assistant Leo Himmelfarb immerses himself in the culture. Later the anthropologist must reassess his work.
 
LeGuin, Ursula (USA) PS3562.E42A79
Always Coming Home New York: Harper & Row, 1985
A peaceful people of the future who have learned to live with and cherish the earth are portrayed in this novel by an anthropologist who is the daughter of a famous anthropologist/ethnographer.
 
Ondaatje, Michael (Sri Lanka) PR9199.3.O5 A84
Anil's Ghost New York: Knopf, 2000
A forensic pathologist returns to her native Sri Lanka to investigate accusations of torture. She is assisted by an anthropologist, his physician brother and a Buddhist sculptor in her quest to understand the terror of the civil war.
 
Parkin, Frank PR6066.A69535 K7
Krippendorf's Tribe New York: Delta, 1986
To qualify for a grant, a British anthropologist invents an Amazonian tribe named after his wild children. Then events take on a life of their own in this very black comedy.
 
Pym, Barbara (British) PR6066.Y58L4
Less than Angels New York: Dutton, 1980
This novel about the doings and misdoings of members of an academic anthropology department betrays the foibles of academic anthropologists and becomes a witty anthropological study of the anthropologists themselves.
 
Vargas Llosa, Mario (Peru) PQ8498.32.A65 H3413
The Storyteller New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1989
A man discovers that his school friend, an anthropology student, has given up so-called civilization and become the storyteller for a primitive tribe.
 
Vizenor, Gerald (Native American) PS3572.I9 C47
Chancers Norman: University of Oklahoma, 2000
A group of radical Native American students at the University of California are assassinating college officials and substituting their skulls for those of Native Americans preserved in the anthropology museum in this novel about the repatriation of Native remains.
 
   

Fiction by and about Native Americans

   
   
Alexie, Sherman PS3551.L35774 I56
The Indian Killer New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996
A series of unsolved murders lead to a young disaffected Native American man in the Seattle area.
 
Alexie, Sherman PS3551.L35774 L66
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven New York: Harper Collins, 1993
This is a collection of short stories about life for young men on a reservation in the Northwest.
 
Alexie, Sherman PS3551.L35774 R74
Reservation Blues New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995
The novel describes the experiences of a group of young northwest Indians who form a rock band.
 
Alexie, Sherman (Native American) PS3551.L35774 T46
Ten Little Indians New York: Grove, 2003
This is a collection of short stories about contemporary life for Native Americans who live, for the most part, in the Pacific Northwest.
 
Conley, Robert PS3553.O494 W5
The Witch of Goingsnake Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988
(Or any of Conley's novels in the "Real People" series.)
 
Dorris, Michael PS3554.O695 Y4
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water New York: H. Holt, 1987
A teenager of mixed Indian and black heritage tries to find a place on the reservation.
 
Erdrich, Louise PS3555.R42 A8
The Antelope Wife New York: HarperFlamingo, 1998
A Native American woman tries to make sense of her life in a large northern city.
 
Erdrich, Louise PS3555.R42 B5
The Bingo Palace New York: HarperCollins, 1994
This novel is an exploration of life and love on an Indian reservation that has been affected by gambling and bingo.
 
Erdrich, Louise PS3555.R42 L37
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse New York: HarperCollins, 2001
This is the story of Father Damien who for almost a century has ministered to the Ojibwa of North Dakota and who all the while has been a woman, masquerading as a man.
 
Erdrich, Louise PS3555.R42L6
Love Medicine New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1984
In this novel the attempts of various residents of a Dakota reservation to find love through natural or supernatural means are explored.
 
Erdrich, Louise PS3555.R42 T73
Tracks New York: Henry Holt, 1988
This is a turn-of-the-century story of Indians losing their land and their freedom.
 
Hillerman, Tony PS3558.I45 T47
A Thief of Time New York: Harper & Row, 1988
Navajo archaeological sites are being ravaged and an archaeologist has disappeared in this mystery about thieves stealing tribal artifacts.
 
Hillerman, Tony PS3558.I45 J6
The Joe Leaphorn mysteries: three classic Hillerman mysteries featuring Lt. Joe Leaphorn including The Blessing Way; Dance Hall of the Dead; Listening Woman. New York: Harper Row, 1989
 
Hogan, Linda PS3558.O34726 M4
Mean Spirit New York: Ivy Books, 1992
The ownership of oil-rich land places the lives of Oklahoma's Indians in jeopardy.
 
Hogan, Linda PS3558.O34726 P6
Power New York: Norton, 1998
In this novel, a Taiga woman in florida kills a protected panther, an act that she sees as a possible way to regeneration of her diminishing tribe. Her sixteen-year-old niece is an unwilling observer of this act and part of the ensuing trials, one in the local court, and one in the native court.
 
King, Thomas PR9199.3.K4422 G7
Green Grass, Running Water Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993
A comic novel in which Coyote and four very elderly elders attempt to make better the lives of five young Canadian members of the Blackfoot tribe who have lost their sense of being Indian.
 
King, Thomas PR9199.3.K4422 M43
Medicine River Toronto: Penguin, 1995
This is a novel about a native photographer who has returned to his home town near the reservation and learns to live with his tribe as well as come to terms with his childhood memories.
 
King, Thomas PR9199.3.K4422 T78
Truth and Bright Water New York: Atlantic Monthly, 1999
A fifteen-year-old boy living on a Canadian reservation on the US border must deal with his parents' estrangement, his cousin's unhappiness, and the return of two unusual individuals to the reservation.
 
Kingsolver, Barbara PS3561.I496 P54
Pigs in Heaven New York: HarperCollins, 1993
A young woman who has rescued and adopted an abandoned baby girl is asked to return the child to her Native American relatives.
 
LaDuke, Wionona PS3562.A268 L37
Last Standing Woman Stillwater, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 1997
The history of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa/Chippewa) Tribe in Minnesota from early contact with white settlers and missionaries through loss of religion and culture to their resurgence at the end of the 20th century told in novelistic form by a noted Native American activist.
 
McNickle, Darcy PS3525.A2844 S8
The Surrounded Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1936
A young man returns briefly to his home on the reservation only to find that circumstances trap him into an unending downward spiral.
 
Momaday, N. Scott PS3563.O47 A78
The Ancient Child Tucson: University of Arizona, 1989
A native-American artist, who has been raised away from his heritage, is called back by a medicine woman to fulfill his tribal destiny.
 
Momaday, N. Scott PS3563.O47 H6
House Made of Dawn New York: Harper Row, 1968
An Indian who serves in the army in World War II is at home neither in the Anglo or Indian worlds.
 
Owens, Louis PS3565.W567 S52
The Sharpest Sight Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1992
A deputy sheriff investigates the murder of his friend, a traumatized Vietnam veteran who is a member of the Choctaw nation, despite the town's prejudice. At the same time the murdered man's younger brother goes on a spiritual journey that will make him a man.
 
Power, Susan PS3566.O83578 G73
The Grass Dancer New York: G. Putnam Sons, 1994
An Indian young man tries to reconcile himself with his heritage.
 
Querry, Ron PS3566.O83578 G73
The Death of Bernadette Lefthand New Mexico: Sun Crane Press/New York: Time Warner, 1994
A beautiful young Apache woman is murdered, demonstrating the bleakness of life on the contemporary reservation.
 
Sandoz, Marie PS3537.A667 H67
The Horsecatcher Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1993 [1952]
Unable to kill, a young Cheyenne is scorned by his tribe when he chooses to become a horse catcher rather than a warrior.
 
Seals, David PS3569.E1725 P69
Powwow Highway New York: Plume, 1990
A group of young Indians go on a quest to free one of their sisters from jail.
 
Seals, David PS3569.E1725 S93
Sweet Medicine New York: Orion Books, 1992
The characters in Powwow Highway fight off the law enforcement officers sent to capture them.
 
Silko, Leslie Marmon PS3569.I44 A79
The Almanac of the Dead New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991
Various mystical forces converge on Phoenix, attempting to stem the depredation of men on the environment.
 
Simmons, Tim PS3569.I4772 B7
Brothers of the Pine Sun Lakes, AZ: Book World Inc., 1995
During the Apache Wars, two brothers are mysteriously bound by sharing the same pine tree birthplace.
 
Vizenor, Gerald PS3572.I9 H6
Hotline Healers Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997
Almost Brown is a modern day trickster who often shows up on college campuses as an academic example of a Native American. He makes his living selling blank books that he autographs with the names of prominent writers. This is a wild weird story of Native life and the academics who make a living off of it.
 
Welch, James PS3573.E44 D44
The Death of Jim Loney New York: Penguin Books, 1987 [1974]
A contrast between a contemporary living experience and the traditional Gros Ventre codes of living as a half-breed goes slowly mad, unable to find his place in the world of a small Montana town.
 
Welch, James PS3573.E44 F66
Fools' Crow New York: Viking Press, 1986
Ancient customs of the Blackfoot clash with the westward rush of the white settlers in the 1870's.
 
Welch, James PS3573.E44 H4
The Heartsong of Charging Elk New York: Doubleday, 2000
At the beginning of the twentieth century an Indian performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show takes ill in Europe and, through bureaucratic mix-ups, is stranded in France, forcing him to spend the rest of his life in a foreign country whose language and customs he doesn't know.
 
Welch, James PS3573.E44 I5
The Indian Lawyer New York: W.W. Norton, 1990
A rising Native American politician is the victim of entrapment by a convict trying to gain parole.
 
Welch, James PS3573.E44 W5
Winter in the Blood New York: Penguin Books, 1986 c.1984
A young man struggles to understand his heritage while living in poverty on the reservation.
 
   

Mysteries and Thrillers with Forensic Anthropologists as Protagonists

   
   

The following authors have written series feature crime-solving anthropologists as protagonists. These anthropologists use their academic skills to find the answers to heinous crimes. Most of these authors' books are available at local public libraries.

Beverly Connor - Her anthropologists are Diane Fallon Lindsey Chamberlin

Aaron Elkins - He writes about forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver

Sharyn McCrumb - Her heroine is Elizabeth MacPherson

Kathy Reich - This extremely popular series feature anthropologist Temperance Brennan




Andrea Kempf, created May 22, 2008, updated July 2, 2008 Return to Guides Index