Together We See - by Ari Tison (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

★ "An adrenaline rush-inducing must-read." --School Library Journal, starred review
★ "A powerful and moving depiction of seeking justice amid mourning." -- Booklist, starred review

This edge-of-your-seat Indigenous murder-mystery set in Costa Rica from Pura Belpré and Walter Dean Myers Award-winning author of Saints of the Household is perfect for fans of Firekeeper's Daughter and Patron Saints of Nothing.

How far would you go to protect your land? To protect your family?

Told in multiple points of view, Together We See follows Ulá Dominguez, a Bribri-American teenager, searching for the truth behind her land-activist father's mysterious death on their Native territory in Costa Rica. Ulá and her brother, Kabék, uncover secrets and corruption as they face off against illegal loggers, kidnappers, settlers, and the local government in the hunt for clues. Their only allies are a few family friends and relatives still living in Bribri, as well as a young journalist, who may be in danger himself. But as details of their father's death emerge, long-held trust is broken. And in this sinister web of deception, no one is safe.

Inspired by real-world missing, dead, and attacked Indigenous activists, award-winning author Ari Tison writes her first novel in prose and pushes the envelope yet again by pulling together a propulsive story full of grief, environmental justice, and the fight for retribution.

Review Quotes

Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

★ "An adrenaline rush-inducing must-read." --School Library Journal, starred review

★ "A powerful and moving depiction of seeking justice amid mourning." -- Booklist, starred review

"Writing in the first-person for Ulá and ingeniously using omnipresent narration for other characters, Tison weaves in Bribri folklore, reflections on the fight for Indigenous Costa Rican rights, and the weight of familial ties to great impact. Rich, complex, and powerful in matters of the heart." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A welcome, engrossing addition to the growing landscape of suspenseful Indigenous young adult literature." -- The Horn Book

About the Author

Ari Tison is a Bribri (Indigenous Costa Rican) American and African descended poet and storyteller. Her poems and short works have been published in Yellow Medicine Review, The Under Review, Rock & Sling, and POETRY's first ever edition for children. She was the winner of the 2018 Vaunda Micheaux Nelson award for a BIPOC writer with Lerner Publishing. She currently is on faculty at Hamline University and the annual broadside editor for Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop where she gets to collaborate with the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts to bring incarcerated voices into the world. Saints of the Household is her debut novel.