Alexie's next adult novel

Sherman Alexie

InterviewYour next adult novel, Fire with Fire, recently sold to Little, Brown and is slated to be published in the Fall of 2010. What stage is it at now?

It was sold with about half of it done. It’s going to be about 600 pages. It’s a mystery…I’m trying to write the great big American Native American novel. It’s huge…it’s apocalyptic, about everything. I’m trying to write the book about everything in the Indian world. It’s big. I’m trying to make a huge statement. Indian writers, we write small. Small worlds, because we grew up tribal. As soon as you see an Indian writer writing big, you know they’re not Indian. So here’s my chance to prove that an Indian can write big. Extend the vision. I’m trying to be epic. It’s about Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor from Smoke Signals on another road trip to solve a murder mystery. It starts on the rez and it ends up in Seattle. It’s incredibly violent.Comment:  For more on the subject, see All About Sherman Alexie.