Prairie Edge

by Conor Kerr

This book, by Giller Prize long-listed Conor Kerr, left me moved and disturbed. An exciting contemporary story involving bison, theft, murder, the police and deep caring between characters, it is also a beautiful, disturbing and a compassionate description of the hopelessness that can lead to addiction. The novel takes us deep into the worlds of its protagonists, two Métis cousins, both desperate for change in their own lives and those of their people. Despite occasionally verging on the didactic, the novel took me into a world I know too little about, and left my head buzzing with thoughts of hope, identity, who really benefits from activism, and letting go of the past.