A Penguin Vitae edition of the great Native American Novel of a battered veteran returning home to heal his mind and spirit, with a foreword by bestselling author Tommy Orange A Penguin Classic Hardcover More than 45 years after its original publication, Ceremony remains one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature, a novel that is itself a ceremony of healing. Tayo, a World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He is deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese and further wounded by the rejection he encounters from his people. Only by immersing himself in the Indian past can he begin to regain the peace that was taken from him. Masterfully written, filled with the somber majesty of Pueblo myth, Ceremony is a work of enduring power Praise for Ceremony : "An exceptional novel—a cause for celebration." — The Washington Post Book World "Her assurance, her gravity, her flexibility are all wonderful gifts." — The New York Review of Books "The novel is very deliberately a ceremony in itself—demanding but confident and beautifully written." — The Boston Globe "Ceremony is the greatest novel in Native American literature. It is one of the greatest novels of any time and place. I have read this book so many times that I probably have it memorized. I teach it and I learn from it and I am continually in awe of its power, beauty, rage, vision, and violence." —Sherman Alexie "Without question Leslie Marmon Silko is the most accomplished Native American writer of her generation." — The New York Times Book Review Leslie Marmon Silko is the author of ten books of fiction, poetry, and memoir, including Ceremony , Storyteller , Almanac of the Dead , and The Turquoise Ledge . She received a “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Foundation in 1981 and the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. The singular achievement of Ceremony , published in 1977, secured her a place among the first rank of Native American novelists. She was recently awarded the 2020 lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Arts and Letters and the 2020 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.  Tommy Orange is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel T here There , and the forthcoming novel Wandering Stars (2024). Orange graduated from the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and was a 2014 MacDowell Fellow and a 2016 Writing by Writers Fellow. He won the 2019 PEN/Hemingway prize and was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He was born and raised in Oakland, California. Table of Contents   About the Author Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Preface Introduction   Ceremony Sunrise. About the Author LESLIE MARMON SILKO was born in Albuquerque in 1948 of mixed ancestry—Laguna Pueblo, Mexican, and white. She grew up in the Laguna Pueblo Reservation, where she lives with her husband and two children. She is the author of the novel Almanac of the Dead , and her stories have appeared in many magazines and collections (including Writers of the Purple Sage ). She is the recipient of a five-year MacArthur Foundation grant.   LARRY McMURTRY is the author of twenty-eight novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove . His other works include two collections of essays, three memoirs, and more than thirty screenplays, including the coauthorship of Brokeback Mountain , for which he received an Academy Award. He lives in Archer City, Texas. PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa   Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England   First published in the United States of America by The Viking Press 1977 Published by New American Library 1978 Published in Penguin Books 1986 This edition with a preface by the author and an introduction by Larry McMurtry published 2006     Copyright © Leslie Marmon Silko, 1977, 2006 Introduction copyright © Larry McMurtry, 2006 All rights reserved   PUBLISHER’S NOTE This is a work of fiction. Nam