Five Little Indians
A Novel
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
WINNER: Canada Reads 2022
WINNER: Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction
WINNER: Amazon First Novel Award
WINNER: Kobo Emerging Author Prize
Finalist: Scotiabank Giller Prize
Finalist: Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize
Finalist: BC & Yukon Book Prize
Shortlist: Indigenous Voices Awards
National Bestseller; A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year; A CBC Best Book of the Year; An Apple Best Book of the Year; A Kobo Best Book of the Year; An Indigo Best Book of the Year
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.
Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.
Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.
With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The five indigenous kids at the heart of this important novel bring the brutal realities of Canada’s infamous residential Indian schools up close and very personal. Lucy, Kenny, Maisie, Howie, and Clara were ripped from their families and placed in one of the notorious boarding schools designed to scrub First Nations children of their culture—mostly through harrowing physical and emotional abuse. Now 16, they’ve each been handed a bus ticket and dropped into the sordid world of hippie-era Vancouver. Cree author Michelle Good doesn’t hold back when it comes to the drugs, exploitation, sexual abuse, crime, and generations of family fallout that occur as a direct result of these characters’ so-called schooling. We felt the pain that these characters endure, but this novel still has hope and healing, as the teens strive to reconnect with their culture and purpose in spite of everything. Watching as they grow steadily stronger is such a moving experience, we were reluctant to turn the last page and say goodbye.
