Tayo, a young World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns home to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. Deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese, and further wounded by the rejection and alienation that he feels amongst his own people, he faces a fierce struggle to find inner peace. Only by immersing himself in his ancestry can he begin to truly recover.

Written in richly evocative prose that weaves deftly through timelines and traditions, Ceremony tells the moving story of Tayo's journey towards healing. Lyrical, compelling and affecting, it is deeply contemporary in both its style and subject matter, exploring enduring themes of identity and recovery, trauma and time. Praised for its humane voice, the novel also raises profound questions of the relationship of society to the individual, and to individual suffering. A poetic meditation on the transformative potential of place, stories, and traditional culture.