Pigs In Heaven, the sequel to The Bean Trees (reviewed in the November 2020 issue of the O.I. Newsletter) was a joy to read, and a gripping adoption and reunion adventure. It is also a story from beginning to end of rearrangements of family, friends and Native tribal members: chosen and unchosen. Threads of relationships get picked up and put into the story, drop out, lay side by side, get knotted together, just to be rearranged again.

There are three generations of protagonists, Alice, mother to the young adoptive mother, Taylor, and Native American preschooler adoptee, Turtle. There are many interconnected characters: Alice’s cousin Sugar in Heaven, Oklahoma, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation; Sugar is a friend of the young Cherokee attorney Annawake who believes that Turtle being raised in a Native community would benefit her as stipulated under the Indian Child Welfare Act; and Cash a returning Cherokee resident of Heaven, who the reader will discover is related to the protagonists.

There are many twists and turns along the way, but stumbling upon the truth of the unfortunate circumstances that led to Turtle going from her birth family and into another incredibly devoted new one, and then back again in an anything-but-seamless transition leads readers to search for answers and inspiration from such complex situations with layers of compelling back story.

The title refers to a story behind a celestial constellation of siblings that are punished for not doing their chores and turned into pigs that reside in the heavens reminding observers to stick together and do what is right, which seems to be what against long odds what the characters in the story are able to accomplish. It is a multi-cultural look and intersection of current thought on what is good for an individual and what is good for a community.