Becoming a Matriarch
A Memoir
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5.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Co-winner of the 2024 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature • Winner of the Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes (part of the BC and Yukon Book Prizes) • Shortlisted for the 2024 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize • Finalist for the 2024 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction • Shortlisted for the 2025 OLA Evergreen Award • Longlisted for Canada Reads 2025
When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to craft a new space.
Helen Knott’s debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy.
Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was.
Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In Helen Knott’s moving memoir about exploring the female side of her family line, tapping into matriarchal power is like discovering the key to the universe. Motivated by the tragic deaths of her mother and grandmother, Knott dives into her lineage among Canada’s Indigenous Dane Zaa people, tying stories of past generations together with those of her own children. Her vivid prose feels electric as she discusses the pain of childbirth, the metaphysical bond between generations, the brutal struggle of a body battling cancer, and the soaring feeling of the spirit escaping its mortal boundaries. Drawing heavily on her own feminist principles, Knott’s thoughts and observations often deal with race and class as well as the ongoing complexities of the grieving process. If you’re looking for a read that explores the significance of feminine power, you’ll find it here.
