ARC Review: Tears in the Grass by Lynda Archer

Release Date: March 19, 2016
Publisher: Dundurn
Format: ebook
Pages: 320 pages
Genre: Fiction
Buy: Kindle | Paperback


Synopsis: 

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.

Review:


Beautifully written with vivid descriptions. Elinor and the Bison's descriptions and stories transport you to a different time and place. You can smell the sweet grass and the wind on your face as you watch the Bison freely roam the plains.  Indigenous people no matter where they are from have had their children stolen, their language taken, their lands stolen and their culture and way of life shattered.  This book brings forth that pain as well as the beauty and glory of seeing the world through the eyes of Elinor who still speaks to the trees and the rivers.  Who still speaks her Cree language and visits the Bison exhibit at the Nature History Museum.

Elinor is nearing the end of her life and is driven to find the daughter she lost so many years ago. Against all odds she believes that she is still alive and enlists her estranged daughter Louise who shuns most things Indian and her granddaughter Alice who is struggling with her sexuality.  Can these three women find peace along with the missing part of their family?



Disclaimer: This book was received from the publisher through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review

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