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Cover of Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

Indian Horse

  • 204 pages · about 3 hours
  • First published 2012
  • 6 editions

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1 About this book

Saul Indian Horse is a child when his family retreats into the woods. Among the lakes and the cedars, they attempt to reconnect with half-forgotten traditions and hide from the authorities who have been kidnapping Ojibway youth. But when winter approaches, Saul loses everything: his brother, his parents, his beloved grandmother--and then his home itself.

Alone in the world and placed in a horrific boarding school, Saul is surrounded by violence and cruelty. At the urging of a priest, he finds a tentative salvation in hockey. Rising at dawn to practice alone, Saul proves determined and undeniably gifted. His intuition and vision are unmatched. His speed is remarkable.

Together they open doors for him: away from the school, into an all-Ojibway amateur circuit, and finally within grasp of a professional career. Yet as Saul's victories mount, so do the indignities and the taunts, the racism and the hatred--the harshness of a world that will never welcome him.

Good for readers who want: a coming-of-age story and literary fiction.

  • Indigenous peoples in Canada
  • Coming of age
  • Racism
  • Native Americans
  • Canada
  • Literary fiction
  • Native American & Aboriginal
  • Sports

2 About Richard Wagamese

1955–2017

Richard Wagamese (October 14, 1955 – March 10, 2017) was an Ojibwe Canadian author and journalist from the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations in Northwestern Ontario. He was best known for his novel Indian Horse (2012), which won the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature in 2013, and was a competing title in the 2013 edition of Canada Reads.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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