It is 1956 and the Cat Lake Indian Reserve in Northern Ontario is preparing for the annual Treaty Day. But what six-year-old Martha, an Anishinabe child, doesn’t know is that she is about to be shipped off to a Residential School, where the abuse is outrageously violent and at times sexual, and the education is a strict doctrine of anything but her own native culture. The story picks up with Martha returning home after 10 years as a very disturbed and angry young woman. The ensuing drama unfolds in a blank dystopian landscape of sex, substance abuse and suicide pacts. While not an altogether pleasant ride, it leaves in its wake a haunting beauty that finds forgiveness and hope in a place one would least expect to find it.
— Graham McDonald
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Price: $29.95 Page count: 272