Review"A fascinating read...I loved the revelations of a child taken away from the love of his family and put out to where his spirit was lost...Wagamese's book is about healing the lost soul"-Tantoo Cardinal Product DescriptionWhen Garnet Raven was three years old, he was taken from his home on an Ojibway Indian reserve and placed in a series of foster homes. Having reached his mid-teens, he escapes at the first available opportunity, only to find himself cast adrift on the streets of the big city.Having skirted the urban underbelly once too often by age 20, he finds himself thrown in jail. While there, he gets a surprise letter from his long-forgotten native family.The sudden communication from his past spurs him to return to the reserve following his release from jail. Deciding to stay awhile, his life is changed completely as he comes to discover his sense of place, and of self. While on the reserve, Garnet is initiated into the ways of the Ojibway--both ancient and modern--by Keeper, a friend of his grandfather, and last fount of history about his people's ways.By turns funny, poignant and mystical, Keeper'n Me reflects a positive view of Native life and philosophy--as well as casting fresh light on the redemptive power of one's community and traditions.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Four chronically homeless people–Amelia One Sky, Timber, Double Dick and Digger–seek refuge in a warm movie theatre when a severe Arctic Front descends on the city. During what is supposed to be a one-time event, this temporary refuge transfixes them. They fall in love with this new world, and once the weather clears, continue their trips to the cinema. On one of these outings they meet Granite, a jaded and lonely journalist who has turned his back on writing “the same story over and over again” in favour of the escapist qualities of film, and an unlikely friendship is struck. A found cigarette package (contents: some unsmoked cigarettes, three $20 bills, and a lottery ticket) changes the fortune of this struggling set. The ragged company discovers they have won $13.5 million, but none of them can claim the money for lack proper identification. Enlisting the help of Granite, their lives, and fortunes, become forever changed.Ragged Company is a journey into both the future and the past. Richard Wagamese deftly explores the nature of the comforts these friends find in their ideas of “home,” as he reconnects them to their histories.From the Hardcover edition.Review“Wagamese writes with brutal clarity…. [and] finds alleviating balance through magical legend and poetic swells of sensate imagery.”— The Globe and Mail“[Ragged Company] has … melancholy tenderness and spiritual yearning. Wagamese evokes each character’s consciousness and history with compassion, deep understanding and a knowledge of street life.”— Vancouver SunFrom the Hardcover edition.About the AuthorRichard Wagamese is an Ojibway from the Wabasseemoong First Nation in northwestern Ontario. After winning a National Newspaper Award for Column Writing, he published two novels in the 1990s: Keeper’n Me and A Quality of Light. His autobiographical book, For Joshua, was published in 2002 and his most recent novel, Dream Wheels, was published in 2006. He lives outside Kamloops, British Columbia.From the Hardcover edition.

The final novel from Richard Wagamese, the bestselling and beloved author of Indian Horse and Medicine Walk, centres on an abused woman on the run who finds refuge and then redemption on a farm run by an Indigenous man with wounds of his own. A radiant novel about the redemptive power of love, mercy, and compassion—and the land's ability to heal us.Franklin Starlight has long settled into a quiet and predictable life working his remote farm. But his contemplative existence is turned upside down by the sudden arrival of Emmy, a woman who has committed a desperate act so she and her child can escape a harrowing life of violence. After Starlight takes Emmy and her daughter in to help them get back on their feet, this accidental family changes them in ways they never could have imagined. But Emmy's abusive ex isn't content to just let her go. He wants revenge and will stop at nothing to hunt her down. Starlight was unfinished at the time of...

By the celebrated author of Canada Reads Finalist Indian Horse, a stunning new novel that has all the timeless qualities of a classic, as it tells the universal story of a father/son struggle in a fresh, utterly memorable way, set in dramatic landscape of the BC Interior. For male and female readers equally, for readers of Joseph Boyden, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas King, Russell Banks and general literary.      Franklin Starlight is called to visit his father, Eldon. He's sixteen years old and has had the most fleeting of relationships with the man. The rare moments they've shared haunt and trouble Frank, but he answers the call, a son's duty to a father. He finds Eldon decimated after years of drinking, dying of liver failure in a small town flophouse. Eldon asks his son to take him into the mountains, so he may be buried in the traditional Ojibway manner.     What ensues is a journey through the rugged and beautiful backcountry, and a journey into the past, as the two men push forward to Eldon's end. From a poverty-stricken childhood, to the Korean War, and later the derelict houses of mill towns, Eldon relates both the desolate moments of his life and a time of redemption and love and in doing so offers Frank a history he has never known, the father he has never had, and a connection to himself he never expected.      A novel about love, friendship, courage, and the idea that the land has within it powers of healing, Medicine Walk reveals the ultimate goodness of its characters and offers a deeply moving and redemptive conclusion.      Wagamese's writing soars and his insight and compassion are matched by his gift of communicating these to the reader. From the Hardcover edition.ReviewPraise for Richard Wagamese: • "Wagamese writes with brutal clarity.... [and] finds alleviating balance through magical legend and poetic swells of sensate imagery." -- Globe and Mail • "Indian Horse is a force for healing in our beautiful, broken world." -- Kathleen Winter, author of Annabel • "Richard is on the frontlines of what it means to be human." -- Shelagh Rogers • "Richard Wagamese's writing is sweet medicine for the soul." -- Richard Van Camp, author of The Lesser BlessedAbout the AuthorRICHARD WAGAMESE is one of Canada's foremost writers. He's been a newspaper columnist and reporter, radio and television broadcaster and producer, documentary producer, and the author of twelve previous novels, including Keeper'n Me and Indian Horse which was a recent Canada Reads Finalist. He is also the author of acclaimed memoirs, including For Joshua; the bestselling One Native Life; and, One Story, One Song, which won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. He has won numerous awards and recognition for his writing. He leads writing and storytelling workshops across the country, and makes frequent appearances as a speaker. He lives in the mountains outside of Kamloops, B.C. The author lives in Kamloops, BC.

A new collection of warm, wise and inspiring stories from the author of the bestselling One Native Life.Since its publication in 2008, readers and reviewers have embraced Richard Wagamese’s One Native Life. “In quiet tones and luminous language,” wrote the Winnipeg Free Press, “Wagamese shares his hurts and joys, inviting readers to find the ways in which they are joined to him and to consider how they might be joined to others.”In this new book, Richard Wagamese again invites readers to accompany him on his travels. This time his focus is on stories: how they shape us, how they empower us, how they change our lives. Ancient and contemporary, cultural and spiritual, funny and sad, the tales are grouped according to the four essential principles Ojibway traditional teachers sought to impart: humility, trust, introspection and wisdom.Whether the topic is learning from his grade five teacher about Martin Luther King, gleaning understanding from a wolf track, lighting a fire for the first time without matches or finding the universe in an eagle feather, these stories exhibit the warmth, wisdom and generosity that made One Native Life so popular. As always, in these pages, the land serves as Wagamese’s guide. And as always, he finds that true home means not only community but conversation—good, straight-hearted talk about important things. We all need to tell our stories, he says. Every voice matters.

Poetry. Native American Studies. Having developed an impressive reputation for his many novels and nonfiction works, Richard Wagamese now presents a collection of stunning poems ranging over a broad landscape. He begins with an immersion in the unforgettable world where "the ancient ones stand at your shoulder...making you a circle / containing everything." These are Medicine teachings told from the experience of one who lived and still lives them. He also describes his life on the road when he repeatedly ran away at an early age, and the beatings he received when the authorities tried "to beat the Indian right out of me." Yet even in the most desperate situations, Wagamese shows us Canada as seen through the eyes and soul of a well-worn traveller, with his love of country, his love of people. Through it all, there are poems of love and music, the language sensuous and tender.

From the acclaimed author of Keeper’n Me and For Joshua, Dream Wheels is a vital and unsparing novel from one of the most fascinating voices in Canadian writing.Joe Willie Wolfchild is on the verge of becoming a World Champion rodeo cowboy when a legendary bull cripples him. At the same time, in the same city, Claire Hartley is brutally assaulted and her 14-year-old son, Aiden, is critically injured during a burglary. The young Ojibway-Sioux man, the black single mother and her mulatto son find their lives irrevocably changed.Joe Willie, a rodeo cowboy since he was a child, smolders in angry silence over a deformed left arm and a limp that make it impossible for him to compete. Claire, a victim of numerous bad relationships, withdraws from men and swears a bitter celibacy. Aiden gains notoriety among his criminal peers and slips into a self-destructive spiral of drugs and violence.Eager to find a place for her son to channel his explosive energies, Claire brings Aiden to a rodeo camp run by the Wolfchild family, where he is drawn to bull riding and proves to be a stunning natural. But Joe Willie refuses to have anything to do with the camp, remaining an aloof, mysterious presence to Claire and the boy.Birch Wolfchild, Joe Willie’s father, sees the potential for Aiden to become a champion and for his son to heal himself, if they can move beyond anger to forge a partnership. Claire’s and Joe Willie’s wounds bring them together in a surprising romance, and beneath it all is Birch Wolfchild’s tale of the changing of the life of the Indian cowboy. Dream Wheels is a story about change. Moving from the Wild West Shows of the late 1880s to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas to a lush valley in the mountains, it tells the story of a people’s journey, a family’s vision, a man’s reawakening, a woman’s recovery, and a boy’s emergence to manhood.From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklyWagamese (Keeper N' Me) threads Native Canadian lore and spirituality into his generous and sentimental Western. Rodeo bull rider Joe Willie Wolfchild, eight seconds away from becoming the #1 ranked "All-Round Cowboy," suffers a career-ending accident that leads him to retreat to the family ranch, where his parents, grandparents and physiotherapist try to coax him back onto his feet. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Aiden Hartley, a disaffected city kid jailed for his role in a botched armed robbery, and his abused mother, Claire, are shepherded by a sympathetic cop (who happens to be a friend of the Wolfchilds) to the Wolfchild ranch, where they can mend their fractured relationship and get Aiden on a better track. Claire takes to the country life and to the Wolfchilds, who represent the stability she's always wanted. Aiden, not one for the "yippee cay-yay" stuff, locks horns with Joe Willie until the similarities in their warrior spirits bring them together. Aiden helps Joe Willie restore a '34 Ford pickup, and Joe Willie teaches Aiden to ride bulls. From there, the narrative grows predictably uplifting, and Wagamese's tendency to carry on (and on) about the romance of cowboy life wears thin. But the novel remains a worthy testament to the healing power of family and tradition. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistOjibwa author Wagamese mixes cowboy lore and Native American mysticism in this affecting novel about the healing effects of family. In pursuit of a world-champion title, Joe Willie Wolfchild suffers a horrific, career-ending accident while riding a temperamental bull named C-4. His supportive family, longtime rodeo people, whisk him back to their ranch to recuperate but worry about his emotional health. Meanwhile, urban street-kid Aiden, sick and tired of his mother Claire's long string of abusive boyfriends, plans a robbery only to land in jail. Upon his release, a concerned parole officer finds a place for Aiden and his mom at the Wolfchild ranch. Claire takes to the stable family and wide-open vistas immediately, but Aiden and Joe Willie circle each other warily until they find common ground. Far from the laconic stereotype, Wagamese's chatty cowboys endlessly parse the western lifestyle and its macho code of conduct, but his soaring descriptions of the desert landscape, action-packed rodeo scenes, and reverence for hearth and home will strike a chord with readers. Joanne WilkinsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Cree Thunderboy wants nothing less than to be the next great blues man. But, playing to tiny audiences in shabby rooms like Shelly's Crab Shack, his career is stalled. Then at the race track he meets Win Hardy, a seemingly charming rogue who spots Cree's knack for picking winning horses. He offers to record his first CD and send him on tour, as long as Cree can keep coming up with the hot tips at the track. Things are looking good for Cree until he discovers Win's connections to the mob and his violent response to anything that doesn't go his way. And when things inevitably go bad, Cree discovers that in life and in gambling there is never really the next sure thing.

Product DescriptionMy life as a Kane was lit in the Indigos, Aquamarines and Magentas of a home built on quiet faith and prayer. But Johnny changed all that. Where I had stood transfixed by the gloss on the surface of living, he called me forward from the pages of the books, away from the blinders that faith can surreptitiously place upon your eyes and out into a world populated by those who live their lives in the shadow of necessary fictions. From the Inside FlapMy life as a Kane was lit in the Indigos, Aquamarines and Magentas of a home built on quiet faith and prayer.  But Johnny changed all that.  Where I had stood transfixed by the gloss on the surface of living, he called me forward from the pages of the books, away from the blinders that faith can surreptitiously place upon your eyes and out into a world populated by those who live their lives in the shadow of necessary fictions.

Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows. With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he’s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement. Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man. Drawing on his great-grandfather’s mystical gift of vision, Saul Indian Horse comes to recognize the influence of everyday magic on his own life. In this wise and moving novel, Richard Wagamese shares that gift of magic with readers as well.

Celebrated Ojibway author Richard Wagamese shares the traditions and teachings of his people, entwining them with an account of his own life-long struggle for self-knowledge and self-respect.Richard Wagamese stares the modern world in the eye and takes careful note of its snares and perils. He sees people coveting without knowing why, people looking for roots without understanding what might constitute rootedness, people looking for acceptance without offering reciprocal respect, and people longing for love without knowing how to offer it. And underneath all lurks the seductive oblivion of substance abuse. These are the pitfalls of his own life, dangers he hopes his estranged son, Joshua, will be able to navigate with the guidance afforded by this heartfelt memoir.Richard Wagamese has no easy answers. His road to self-knowledge has been long and treacherous -- and it is in part this series of trials that has furnished him if not with a complete set of answers then at least a profound understanding of the questions. Again and again Wagamese brings universal problems into astonishingly sharp focus by sharing the special wisdom of Canada's First Nations, while reminding us that we are not so different after all.

When Lucas Smoke learns the Ojibway art of carving from his grandfather, he proves to be a natural. He can literally make people come to life in wood. Then Lucas's growing reputation attracts a mysterious stranger, who offers him a large advance to carve a spirit mask. This mask is to represent the master, but Lucas must find its face in his dreams. As his dreams become more and more disturbing, he feels himself changing. And the mask takes control of his life. Then a chance encounter with an old woman introduces him to the identity of the master. He is an ancient sorcerer named Him Standing, a powerful and dark wizard. The more Lucas works on the mask, the closer Him Standing comes to emerging from the dream world to walk the earth again. What follows is a race against time and the forces of evil in this supernatural thriller. Review"In an efficient yet engaging writing style, Wagamese portrays Lucas as a likeable hero with a distinct voice and perspective. Amy acts as a solid foil to Lucas, and the two develop each other in showing their vulnerable sides...The pace is snappy; events follow on each other's heels like dominoes at a rate sure to keep the reader hooked on the storyline. Recommended." (CM Magazine 20130215) About the AuthorRichard Wagamese is one of Canada's foremost Native authors and journalists. In a career spanning thirty-two years, he has worked in newspapers, radio, television and publishing, and has won numerous awards for his work. Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Thompson Rivers University in 2010, he lives outside of Kamloops, British Columbia, with his wife and Molly the Story Dog.

One Native Life is Richard Wagamese’s look back at the long road he traveled in reclaiming his identity. It's about the things he's learned as a human being, a man, and an Ojibway. Whether he's writing about playing baseball, running away with the circus, listening to the wind, or meeting Johnny Cash, these are stories told in a healing spirit. Through them, Wagamese shows how to appreciate life for the remarkable learning journey it is.From BooklistOjibway novelist Wagamese disclosed the details of his childhood abuse and abandonment in an earlier autobiography; here he moves beyond that painful past to celebrate the learning journey the rest of his life has become. He gradually unearthed his tribal identity, and in these short essays of memories and traditions, he has found the essence of his Ojibway self. He begins with a tribute to one of his many foster fathers, a Ukrainian Canadian who helped him understand his Ojibway need for a strong connection to the land. Writing becomes his most powerful means of expression early on—saving him from feelings of displacement. To Wagamese the library was an enchanted forest, and he worked his way through Homer, Joyce, Shakespeare, and Ibsen, mostly to prove to himself he could tackle anything. In his twenties, Wagamese reconnected with his native family and later began learning the Ojibway language. His memoir is an insightful look at his search for his roots and the traditions binding him not only to his people but the great, grand circle of humanity. --Deborah Donovan