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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Tears in the Grass
Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction -- Shortlisted
For Elinor Greystone, the only way forward is back into the past.
At ninety years of age, Elinor, a Saskatchewan Cree artist, inveterate roll-your-own smoker, and talker to rivers and stuffed bison, sets out to find something that was stolen almost a lifetime ago. With what little time she has left, she is determined to find the child taken from her after she, only a child herself, was raped at a residential school.
It is 1968, and a harsh winter and harsher attitudes await Elinor, her daughter, and her granddaughter as they set out on an odyssey to right past wrongs, enduring a present that tests their spirit and chips away at their aboriginal heritage. Confronting a history of trauma, racism, love, and cultural survival, Tears in the Grass is the story of an unflagging woman searching for the courage to open her heart to a world that tried to tear it out.
For Elinor Greystone, the only way forward is back into the past.
At ninety years of age, Elinor, a Saskatchewan Cree artist, inveterate roll-your-own smoker, and talker to rivers and stuffed bison, sets out to find something that was stolen almost a lifetime ago. With what little time she has left, she is determined to find the child taken from her after she, only a child herself, was raped at a residential school.
It is 1968, and a harsh winter and harsher attitudes await Elinor, her daughter, and her granddaughter as they set out on an odyssey to right past wrongs, enduring a present that tests their spirit and chips away at their aboriginal heritage. Confronting a history of trauma, racism, love, and cultural survival, Tears in the Grass is the story of an unflagging woman searching for the courage to open her heart to a world that tried to tear it out.
Book Details
- Publisher: Dundurn Press
- Publish Date: Apr 12nd, 2016
- Pages: 320
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.40in - 5.50in - 0.70in - 0.80lb
- EAN: 9781459732117
- Categories: • Literary• Cultural Heritage• Indigenous - General (see also Indigenous Peoples of Turtle
About the Author
Archer, Lynda A.: -
Lynda A. Archer holds a MFA (fiction) in creative writing from Spalding University in Kentucky. Her short stories have been published in The Dalhousie Review, the Wascana Review, and The New Quarterly. Tears in the Grass is her first novel. Lynda lives on Gabriola Island in British Columbia.
Praise for this book
The treatment of Elinor's Native spirituality, though risky, adds a convincing dimension to the characters that makes this a story not just about a Native family, but of them.
Archer...tells the story of these women with grace and charm...Readers will be compelled to keep turning the pages to find out what will happen next on Elinor's grand adventure when she sets off to find her long-lost child.
An empathetic, gripping, and wise debut novel.
Tears in the Grass has a powerful relationship with time -- time flowing through three generations of women; time speaking through a museum buffalo; time racing against a long-separated mother and daughter; the timelessness of land and history. Archer's bold prose, heartfelt characters, and imaginative plot weave a story of loss and redemption, trauma and healing, justice and remembrance. This lovely novel faces hard truths and ancient wounds, while illuminating corners of hope and solace. Read it and be uplifted.
In language that is vivid and compelling, Lynda Archer's Tears in the Grass tells the story of Elinor, Louise, and Angela, three generations of women, each having a secret that separates them from each other. Through an empowering journey to find Elinor's long-lost daughter, their secrets bring them closer together. This important story forces us all to look at our common history of racism and social injustice, but poignantly demonstrates that we can reach new understandings through compassion, forgiveness, and love.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and reluctantly left Elinor and company when I finished it. There is so much humanity, humour, and insight in this tale - not to mention the suspense; this is a page turner. Underlying forces are pushing and pulling, steering the characters toward a beautifully crafted resolution.
This strong, lyrical novel is set in 1968, before ... the movement towards recognition of Aboriginal rights.
Set in Saskatchewan in 1968, Tears in the Grass is a beautifully written, nuanced story of three generations of Cree women who have chosen different paths to find their place in the world.