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Do not say we have nothing: a novel
By Madeleine Thien. 2016
The author takes us inside two talented families of musicians in China and the lives of two entwined generations -…
those who weathered Mao's Cultural Revolution in the mid-twentieth century; and their children, who became the 1989 Tiananmen Square protesters during one of the most important political moments of the past century. Bestseller. Winner of the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Winner of the 2016 Governor General’s Award for Fiction. 2016.The marrow thieves
By Cherie Dimaline. 2017
In a future world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led…
to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America's indigenous population - and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world. But getting the marrow - and dreams - means death for the unwilling donors. Driven to flight, a 15-year-old and his companions struggle for survival, attempt to reunite with loved ones, and take refuge from the "recruiters" who seek them out to bring them to the marrow-stealing 'factories.' For senior high readers. Bestseller. Canada Reads 2018. Winner of the 2017 Governor General’s Award for Young People's Literature and the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young Adult Literature. 2017.Mamaskatch: a Cree coming of age
By Darrel McLeod. 2018
Growing up in the tiny village of Smith, Alberta, Darrel J. McLeod was surrounded by his Cree family's history. In…
shifting and unpredictable stories, his mother, Bertha, shared narratives of their culture, their family and the cruelty that she and her sisters endured in residential school. Darrel was comforted by her presence and that of his many siblings and cousins, the smells of moose stew and wild peppermint tea, and his deep love of the landscape. Bertha taught him to be fiercely proud of his heritage and to listen to the birds that would return to watch over and guide him at key junctures of his life. However, in a spiral of events, Darrel's mother turned wild and unstable, and their home life became chaotic. Sweet and innocent by nature, Darrel struggled to maintain his grades and pursue an interest in music while changing homes many times, witnessing violence, caring for his younger siblings and suffering abuse at the hands of his surrogate father. Meanwhile, his older brother's gender transition provoked Darrel to deeply question his own sexual identity. Winner of the 2018 Governor General’s Award for Non-fiction. 2018.When we were alone
By David Robertson, Julie Flett. 2016
When a young girl helps tend to her grandmother's garden, she begins to notice things that make her curious. Why…
does her grandmother have long, braided hair and beautifully coloured clothing? Why does she speak another language and spend so much time with her family? As she asks her grandmother about these things, she is told about life in a residential school a long time ago, where all of these things were taken away. Winner of the 2017 McNally Robinson Books for Young People Awards (younger). Grades K-3 and older readers. 2016.How to Pronounce Knife: Stories
By Souvankham Thammavongsa. 2020
Named one of the best books of spring 2020 by The New York Times, Salon, The Millions, and Vogue, and…
featuring stories that have appeared in Harper's, Granta, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review, this revelatory book of fiction from O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa establishes her as an essential new voice in Canadian and world literature. Told with compassion and wry humour, these stories honour characters struggling to find their bearings far from home, even as they do the necessary "grunt work of the world." A young man painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A father who packs furniture to move into homes he'll never afford. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. In her stunning debut book of fiction, O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. As one of Thammavongsa's characters says, "All we wanted was to live." And in these stories, they do--brightly, ferociously, unforgettably.A daughter becomes an unwilling accomplice in her mother's growing infatuation with country singer Randy Travis. A boxer finds an unexpected chance at redemption while working at his sister's nail salon. An older woman finds her assumptions about the limits of love unravelling when she begins a relationship with her much younger neighbour. A school bus driver must grapple with how much he's willing to give up in order to belong. And in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize-shortlisted title story, a young girl's unconditional love for her father transcends language.Unsentimental yet tender, and fiercely alive, How to Pronounce Knife announces Souvankham Thammavongsa as one of the most striking voices of her generation. Bestseller. Winner of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize.Five wives: A Novel
By Joan Thomas. 2019
1956. A small group of evangelical Christian missionaries and their families journeyed to the rainforest in Ecuador intending to convert…
the Waorani, a people who had never had contact with the outside world. Calling it Operation Auca, the group spent several days dropping gifts from an aircraft, and then the five men in the party rashly entered the "intangible zone." They were all killed, leaving their wives and children to fend for themselves. A fictionalized account of the real-life women who were left behind, and their struggles - with grief, with doubt, and with each other - as they continued to pursue their evangelical mission in the face of the explosion of fame that followed their husbands' deaths. Winner of the 2019 Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Bestseller. 2019.