The Cherokee Rose

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By Tiya Miles

Publisher Description

Three women uncover the secrets of a Georgia plantation that embodies the intertwined histories of Indigenous and enslaved Black communities—the fascinating debut novel, inspired by a true story, of the National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of All That She Carried, now featuring a new introduction and discussion guide.

“The Cherokee Rose is a mic drop—an instant classic. An invitation to listen to the urgent, sweet choruses of past and present.”—Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois

LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST

Conducting research for her weekly history column, Jinx, a free-spirited Muscogee (Creek) historian, travels to Hold House, a Georgia plantation originally owned by Cherokee chief James Hold, to uncover the mystery of what happened to a tribal member who stayed behind after Indian removal, when Native Americans were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homelands in the nineteenth century.

At Hold House, she meets Ruth, a magazine writer visiting on assignment, and Cheyenne, a Southern Black debutante seeking to purchase the estate. Hovering above them all is the spirit of Mary Ann Battis, the young Indigenous woman who remained in Georgia more than a century earlier. When they discover a diary left on the property that reveals even more about the house’s dark history, the three women’s connections to the place grow deeper. Over a long holiday weekend, Cheyenne is forced to reconsider the property’s rightful ownership, Jinx reexamines assumptions about her tribe’s racial history, and Ruth confronts her own family’s past traumas before surprising herself by falling into a new romance.

Imbued with a nuanced understanding of history, The Cherokee Rose brings the past to life as Jinx, Ruth, and Cheyenne unravel mysteries with powerful consequences for them all.

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18 Reviews

3.5

Šarlota Tůmová

Created 24 days ago

Paola Foresti

Created 2 months ago

Believable Diverse representation Original Slow-paced Uneven pacing Beautiful Magical Bad writing Flowery/lush Death Domestic violence Misogyny Racism Sexual assault Violence

Nkj

Created 6 months ago

“Did audio version but wish I had bought the book so I could underline passages. Lovely book. Intellectually stimulating. Miles is my current favorite. Love her non-fiction and narrative style as well as research methodology. First fiction I’ve read by her and I really enjoyed it. Will recommend”

Jas

Created about 1 year ago

“Note: I read the republished edition that was released in 2023. The Cherokee Rose engaged in conversations that many novels are afraid to have, and many communities avoid discussion. Miles acknowledges inherent, colonialist biases within Black and Indigenous communities, and is not afraid to depict characters as wrong in their ways, and better for learning from their biases. I appreciate Miles' rerelease of the novel, as I feel now is a great time to bring these conversations back into the sphere of critical race discussions and systemic inequality. I believe that, at the time of its original publishing, it was likely not the best time for discussing internalized racism and colourism, as many discussions of race in more public arenas was in its infancy (that's not to say they weren't happening, but it cannot be disputed that race is publicly discussed much more now than it was nine years ago). I believe that now, fiction and theory that takes on the topics that The Cherokee Rose does is much needed as we advance conversations about racial stigma and what it means to reclaim history and defy generational trauma. I also love that the novel is now historical fiction in two senses of the word, investigating the life of a plantation, but also the difference in life and racial discussions in 2008 compared to the modern day. At a time like now, when money fears are as prevalent as they had been during the recession, it is refreshing to see Cheyenne, Jinx, and Ruth all brought to an even playing field at the Hold House, having conversations that reflect how in-group stigmas have changed or grown, and how community identity has been pinned to colonialism since slavery. All of that being said, the novel is, unfortunately, nothing special, though it does engage in very important conversation in a way that is accessible to most. It is incredibly important to discuss that many other communities of colour are discriminatory towards the Black community, but also how misogynoir is weaponized against Black women to turn them against each other in a battle over natural hair and stiletto pumps. I truly value Miles' subversiveness in giving her main characters some degree of wealth, and personal intelligence based on their life's experiences. I also value her ability to push the boundaries of the discussions we have to turn them from external to internal, to discuss the disrepair in marginalized communities because of colonialism's lasting effect. This is all to say that The Cherokee Rose is definitely theoretically important for inclusion discussions, and I value the work Miles is doing through her fiction, but the story at hand is not very interesting beyond its suggested talking points.”

Liz

Created over 1 year ago

About Tiya Miles

Tiya Miles is the Michael Garvey Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the author of All That She Carried, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. She is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award and the Hiett Prize in the Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Her book The Dawn of Detroit received the Merle Curti Award, the James A. Rawley Prize, the James Bradford Best Biography Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction, an American Book Award, and a Frederick Douglass Book Prize. Additionally, Miles is the author of Ties That Bind, The House on Diamond Hill, and Tales from the Haunted South, and the co-editor of Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds.