Quah, Oklahoma

Quah is a fictional town in the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma as a state is significant because it the area to which the Cherokee peoples were brutally and forcibly relocated by the United States during the Jackson Administration. It is the hometown of the Echota family. Maria, Ernest, and Sonja still live in Quah, but Edgar has moved away. All of the novel’s plot points involving Maria, Ernest, Sonja, Vin, and Wyatt take place in Quah. Sonja lives in a house very close to the house where her parents live.

Children’s Shelter

Several scenes in the novel take place at a shelter for orphaned or displaced children. Wyatt is a temporary resident of the shelter after his father is arrested, and before he is fostered by the Echotas. Maria is retired and sometimes volunteers at the shelter, reading or telling stories to the children. Wyatt...