Winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Nonfiction as well as the 2020 Indigenous Voices Award, this harrowing yet hopeful memoir from Métis-Cree professor and homelessness advocate Jesse Thistle is already a runaway sensation in his native Canada. In plainspoken prose and original poetry, Thistle tells a jaw-dropping story of trauma, struggle and healing.
When Thistle was a preschooler, his mother gave him and his brothers to their father, a drug addict. Neglected and starved, the boys learned to beg for change, dumpster dive and pull petty thefts before their father abandoned them. A stint in a children's home led to a dark time in a foster home, "my brother Jerry fighting off the giant wolf that... floated over our beds and ripped him apart." Eventually the boys landed in the care of their paternal grandparents, where their grandfather tried to toughen them with constant work and corporal punishment. Thistle continued to miss his parents deeply, struggled in school and faced casual racism. Disowned by his grandfather for drug use, he spent his early adulthood in a spiral of addiction, homelessness and stealing for survival before finding his purpose through connecting with his heritage.
Thistle delivers an unvarnished description of his past without judgment or self-pity. His colloquial metaphors and unpretentious style make the narrative both accessible and as sharp as glass. Candid and unflinching, From the Ashes illustrates the impact of losing contact with culture and community. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads