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The Strangers
by Katherena Vermette

From the award-winning and #1 bestselling author of The Break and The Circle, The Strangers is the middle instalment in this heart-rending, utterly immersive Indigenous family saga now in B-format, with a series tie-in cover.

A$24.99

(Trade paperback)

Available. Dispatched 2-3 business days

Overview

Cedar has nearly forgotten what her family looks like. Phoenix has nearly forgotten how freedom feels. And Elsie has nearly given up hope. Nearly. These are the Strangers, each haunted in her own way.

After time spent in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Although she grapples with the pain of being separated from her mother, Elsie, and sister, Phoenix, she’s hoping for a new chapter in her life. From a youth detention centre, Phoenix gives birth to a baby she’ll never get to raise and tries to forgive herself for all the harm she’s caused (while wondering if she even should). Elsie, struggling with addiction and determined to turn her life around, is buoyed by the idea of being reunited with her daughters and strives to be someone they can depend on, unlike her own distant mother.

The Strangers is a searing exploration of race, class, inherited trauma and matrilineal bonds that — despite everything — refuse to be broken.

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Reviews

Tony Birch

‘The Strangers is a remarkable accomplishment. This story, of the violence of colonial oppression, is told with visceral boldness. Katherena Vermette's writing shines a light of courage into the lives of First Nations women and girls on Turtle Island (Canada). There are stories that demand to be told, that must be told. Stories that once told cannot be forgotten. The Strangers holds such stories.’

Billy-Ray Belcourt, author of A History of My Brief Body

‘A powerful collective portrait of struggle and resistance, of what it’s like to be in an Indigenous body in twenty-first century Canada. In the end, it adds up to an engrossingly written ode to another kind of care, one against the grain of suffering.’

David Chariandy, award-winning author of Brother and I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You

‘The Strangers is a unique and essential triumph of a novel. It is revelatory in its artistry—in its constellating of family against violent separation, in its austere poetics of voice and consciousness. Katherena Vermette has proven once again that she is among the most gifted and relevant writers of our time: someone with everything to teach us about the telling of necessary stories, about grieving the fallen, honouring survival, and revealing the fiercest beauty.’

Katherena Vermette

Katherena Vermette (she/her) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis nation—Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Her first book, North End Love Songs, won the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Her first novel, The Break, was a national bestseller and won several 2017 awards, including the Amazon First Novel Award, Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and McNally Robinson Book of the Year.

She lives with her family in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River. The Strangers is her second novel.