Rediscover Beatrice Mosionier’s groundbreaking classic with this 40th anniversary edition. Intimate, hopeful, and impossible to put down.
Description
Memories. Some memories are elusive, fleeting, like a butterfly that touches down and is free until it is caught. Others are haunting. You'd rather forget them, but they won't be forgotten. And some are always there. No matter where you are, they are there, too.
In this moving story of legacy and reclamation, two young sisters are taken from their home and family. Powerless in a broken system, April and Cheryl are separated and placed in different foster homes. Despite the distance, they remain close, even as their decisions threaten to divide them emotionally, culturally, and geographically. As one sister embraces her Métis identity, the other tries to leave it behind.
Will the sisters’ bond survive as they struggle to make their way in a society that is often indifferent, hostile, and violent?
Beloved for more than 40 years, In Search of April Raintree is a timeless story that lingers long after the final page. This anniversary edition features a foreword by Governor General’s Award–winning author Katherena Vermette, and an afterword by University of Regina professor, Dr. Raven Sinclair (Ôtiskewâpit), an expert on Indigenous child welfare.
Reviews
As an Indigenous kid who wanted to be a writer, Beatrice was one of the people who not only showed me what was possible, but opened doors for me, and other Indigenous writers, to do what we do today. In Search of April Raintree was the first book I read that spoke to the Indigenous experience, and it changed me for the better. It remains a vitally important work within the landscape of Canadian literature, and an example of how we tell our stories, and why we should never stop.
David A. Robertson
I first read In Search of April Raintree as a teenager. I was immediately pulled into this world that was so familiar, I could feel it in my blood memory. Because it was tender and brutal, authentic and unapologetic, heartbreaking and hopeful. Because an Indigenous woman wrote it. Because it was a story about Indigenous experience. Because it was a beautiful honouring of our survival and refusal to abandon our families, our cultures, our ceremonies. Beatrice Mosionier created magic for this brown girl and for brown girls everywhere.
Rosanna Deerchild
Few books have impacted my life and my visions of myself as Beatrice Mosionier’s April Raintree has. The book’s bravery, detail, and beautiful story of strength and growth—truth in the face of lies of the worst kind—were and are one of the most important gifts I and other Indigenous people have needed for this generation. That book has moved us forward as a people and has been a light during a very dark time for all of us.
Dr. Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair
Reading Beatrice Mosionier’s seminal novel was life-changing. As a young Indigenous woman, it was the first time I felt seen. Represented. Reflected. As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of In Search of April Raintree, we must continue to raise, uplift, and amplify the voices of Indigenous women and girls, whose experiences, histories, and narratives have been systemically silenced and erased. Miigwech.
Nahanni Fontaine
In Search of April Raintree is one of the all-time great works of Indigenous literature, and it is still as vital and relevant today as it was forty years ago. It has had a profound influence on a generation of Indigenous writers and artists, and I am confident that it will continue to have that kind of impact for generations to come. For me personally, I will always remember In Search of April Raintree as the first novel I read that presented Métis experience in an authentic, gripping, and deeply moving way.
Dr. Warren Cariou