A #1 Indie bestseller and a Canadian bestseller for 22 weeks, the brilliant latest novel from one of Canada’s foremost authors

Inspired by a handful of postcards sent nearly a hundred years ago, Bird and Mimi attempt to trace long-lost uncle Leroy and the family medicine bundle he took with him to Europe.

“I’m sweaty and sticky. My ears are still popping from the descent into Vaclav Havel. My sinuses ache. My stomach is upset. My mouth is a sewer. I roll over and bury my face in a pillow. Mimi snuggles down beside me with no regard for my distress.

‘My god,’ she whispers, ‘can it get any better?’”

By turns witty, sly and poignant, this is the unforgettable tale of one couple’s holiday in Europe, where their wanderings through its famous capitals reveal a complicated history, both personal and political.

Thomas King, who is of Cherokee and Greek descent, is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, scriptwriter, and photographer. His first novel, Medicine River, won several awards, including the PEN/Josephine Miles Award and the Writers Guild of Alberta Award, and was shortlisted for the 1991 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. It was also made into a CBC television movie. Green Grass, Running Water, his second novel, was shortlisted for the 1993 Governor General's Award and won the 1994 Canadian Authors Award for fiction. His highly praised short story collection, One Good Story, That One, was a Canadian bestseller, and his collection of Massey Lectures, The Truth About Stories, won the 2003 Trillium Book Award. He has also written three acclaimed children's books: A Coyote Columbus Story, Coyote Sings to the Moon, and Coyote's New Suit. Thomas King lives in Guelph, Ontario, and is an Associate Professor of English (teaching Native literature and creative writing) at the University of Guelph.

Thomas King's profile page

• Indigo Best Books of the Year
• Globe & Mail 100: Our Favourite Books of 2020
• Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
• International Dublin Literary Award
• Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour
• Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada
• OLA Evergreen Award
• CBC Books: Best Canadian Fiction of 2020
• Governor General’s Literary Award

"Reading Thomas King's INDIANS ON VACATION. Great grumpy dialogue + killer one-liners! Remind me not to irritate him. @HarperCollinsCA" — @MargaretAtwood

“The beauty of King’s writing is that, like all good authors, it seems effortless. Like those words always have and always should be in that specific order on the page, and that was the way the great literary gods planned it. . . .I like reading Tom King because he does, succinctly and cleverly, what all good writers should do – he educates, illuminates and entertains with every paragraph.” — Drew Hayden Taylor, author of Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

“From the first page, King’s sardonic and very funny voice leads us to places we never expect to go. . . European and Indigenous history collide and there’s no one better to examine the aftermath.” — Toronto Star

“Funny and deeply sensitive…. Indians on Vacation presses sharply against the world with humour and heart – personalized demons and all.” — Quill & Quire (starred review)

"Indians on Vacation is a witty, funny striking story that ponders the importance of history from the smallest personal connections to big-picture politics."
— Vancouver Sun

“As more and more Indigenous writers create new and exciting works, trailblazers like King have endured. Canada, in turn, is better for it. . . . I could spend my time dissecting the skill in King’s writing, how he layers complex ideas and themes underneath his trademark humour (which is pretty much unmatched). . . . [R]eaders find essential truths King has laced within the narrative thread.” — Daniel A. Robertson, author of Black Water

“[Bird and Mimi] are winning, funny protagonists: bickering, falling ill, eating bad food and confronting old truths. A sly and wise book.” — Chatelaine

“King . . . winner of the RBC Taylor Prize for The Inconvenient Indian, offers armchair travel and wry observational truths about contemporary life in equal measure." — Zoomer Magazine