Welcome to Litsy!

It‘s the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada to honour the Indigenous children taken from their homes to residential schools, both the survivors and those who never returned. It‘s a somber day to reflect on Canada‘s shameful history.

This was an intense book of short stories, you are dropped right into the middle of each & everything just comes at you. The first story was my favourite but such powerful writing across them all.

I love her writing style. The story with Annie Muktuk was great - nice to revisit this character.

Winner of the Governor General Award for Fiction. 🏆😁 #Indigenous

Tainna=The Unseen Ones. Not all Inuit live in the north. In this heartfelt collection of six short stories, we meet Inuit people of all ages who live in Canadian cities south of their traditional land. Supernatural beings and dead ancestors interact with the living. The characters find ways to survive and make community connections, while dealing with alienation, racism and misogyny. #Indigenous #canlit

“Hey fellas, look over here—it‘s an Eskimo!”
She knew not to interact. No matter what. Not with a white guy & especially not with an old white guy. She let her breath out & held her head up a little higher.
“Like the football team, you mean, Alex?” The bar burst into hard laughter. Peals of it slip-sliding everywhere. Annie saw the bellies of all those white men jiggling like Mr Claus. She saw their white beards ho-ho-ho-ing & their blue eyes ⬇️

His laugh spun him around like a hurricane and made drift piles of old laughter fall off the walls and make a mountain out of old and new laughs. His body shook and swayed and shattered into bits and pieces. Their house became the shrapnel of Grandpa Chevy‘s big long laugh.

I‘ve tagged one of my most recent purchases from my local independents. There are two indies in Edmonton, both offering free delivery, and I split my online orders between them. Happy Independent Bookstore Day!