YPL Presents: Dystopian Tropes from an Indigenous Perspective with Waubgeshig Rice

It’s been over a decade since a mysterious cataclysm caused a permanent blackout that toppled infrastructure and thrust the world into anarchy. Evan Whitesky led his community in remote northern Ontario off the rez and into the bush, where they’ve been living off the land, rekindling their Anishinaabe traditions in total isolation from the outside world.

As new generations are born, and others come of age in the world after everything, Evan’s people are in some ways stronger than ever. But resources in and around their new settlement are beginning to dry up, and the elders warn that they cannot afford to stay indefinitely.

Evan and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Nangohns, are elected to lead a small scouting party on a months-long trip to their traditional home on the north shore of Lake Huron—to seek new beginnings and discover what kind of life—and what dangers—still exist in the lands to the south.

Moon of the Turning Leaves is Rice’s exhilarating return to the world first explored in the phenomenal breakout bestseller Moon of the Crusted Snow: a brooding story of survival, resilience, Indigenous identity, and rebirth. Register now for a thrilling conversation!

The YPL Presents: Virtual Author series is funded and supported by the Foundation for the Yonkers Public Library.
 

About the Author:  Waubgeshig Rice is an author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. His books include the Independent Publishers Book Award-winning short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge and the national bestselling novel Moon of the Crusted Snow. Reporting for CBC News for the bulk of his journalism career, in 2014 he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling, and from 2018 to 2020, he hosted Up North, CBC Radio’s afternoon show for northern Ontario.