Indian Horse Paperback – 10 April 2018
by Richard Wagamese (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 845 ratings
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Named a Best Novel of the Decade by Literary Hub
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, tied inexorably to the sport he loves.
Spare and compact yet undeniably rich, Indian Horse is at once a heartbreaking account of a dark chapter in our history and a moving coming-of-age story.
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Review
"Richard Wagamese is a born storyteller."--Louise Erdrich
Many indigenous authors have portrayed the horrific conditions endured by Native children in boarding schools in both the US and Canada throughout much of the twentieth century. But perhaps no author has written a novel with such raw, visceral emotion about the lifelong damage resulting from this institutionalization as Wagamese . . . Wagamese's heart-wrenching tale was made into an award-winning movie, and it tells a story that will long haunt all readers.--Booklist (starred review)
"This flawless novel is an epic tragedy graced with tendrils of hope. . . . We are indebted to [Wagamese] for all he wrote, and especially for this book, a powerful fictional illumination of a Native North American life that echoes so many real ones."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
A wonderful coming-of-age novel . . . When the story's protagonist, Saul Indian Horse, lands in a treatment center after an alcoholic overdose, he's encouraged to draft his life story--and it's an incredible tale. --Outside Magazine
"While Wagamese's fictionalized account is unflinching in its grim history of institutional cruelty, it also witnesses moments of human joy . . . With Indian Horse, Wagamese has sneakily written one of the great works of sport literature, filled with the kind of poetry that can redeem individual lives despite the systems that would see them destroyed."--Literary Hub
"Haunting and masterful . . . In spare, poetic language, Wagamese wrestles with trauma and its fallout, and charts the long, lonely walk to survival."--Publishers Weekly
[A] chillingly beautiful book . . . Wagamese's novel depicts the tragedies of residential schools (although they were more like child labor camps than schools) in the 1960s to '70s through the life of Saul Indian Horse, a young First Nations boy who escapes the horrors of the school through his passion for hockey.--Electric Literature
"From the novel's outset, Indian Horse announces itself as the story of a generation, not merely of a single individual's life. . . . It is the intimacy of Wagamese's telling that transforms the story from an abstract experience to one that lives and breathes."--Fiction Writers Review
Canadian Praise for Indian Horse:
"Indian Horse distills much of what Wagamese has been writing about for his whole career into a clearer and sharper liquor, both more bitter and more moving than he has managed in the past. He is such a master of empathy--of delineating the experience of time passing, of lessons being learned, of tragedies being endured--that what Saul discovers becomes something the reader learns, as well, shocking and alien, valuable and true."--Jane Smiley
"An unforgettable work of art . . . Indian Horse finds the granite solidity of Wagamese's prose polished to a lustrous sheen; brisk, brief, sharp chapters propel the reader forward. He seamlessly braids together his two traditions: English literary and aboriginal oral. So audible is Saul's voice, that I heard him stop speaking whenever I closed the book."--National Post
"One of the rarest sorts of books: a novel which is both important and a heart-in-throat pleasure."--Edmonton Journal
"It is as a story of reconciliation that this novel reveals Wagamese's masterful subtlety. . . . In a single image, Wagamese complicates in blinding ways the entire narrative; in a single page, Indian Horse deepens from an enjoyable read to a gripping critique of Canada."--The Walrus
"This book is so many things; it is a mystical tale; it is an ode to the good old hockey game and its power to lift players above their situations; it is a story of a system that fails and fails its children in horrifying ways; it is a story of healing. . . . A hopeful and beautiful book."--Guelph Mercury
Praise for Medicine Walk:
"Less written than painstakingly etched into something more permanent than paper . . . Richard Wagamese bides his time, never rushing, calibrating each word so carefully that he never seems to waste a shot. . . . Though death saturates these pages, not a word here is lugubrious. Though revelations abound, there are no cheap surprises. . . . There's nothing plain about this plain-spoken book."--New York Times
"A slim, beautiful, heart-wrenching novel . . . Richard Wagamese is a marvelous writer, and this is a treasure of a book."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Wagamese has penned a complex, rugged, and moving father-son novel. His muscular prose and spare tone complement this gem of a narrative."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Richard Wagamese is a keen observer, sketching places or people elegantly, economically, all while gracefully employing literary insight to deftly dissect blood ties lingering in fractured families. . . . A powerful novel of hard men in hard country, reminiscent of Jim Harrison's Legends of the Fall."--Kirkus
"A deeply felt and profoundly moving novel, written in the kind of sure, clear prose that brings to mind the work of the great North American masters like Steinbeck. But Wagamese's voice and vision are also completely his own, as is the important and powerful story he has to tell."--Jane Urquhart
About the Author
Richard Wagamese (1955-2017) was one of Canada's foremost writers, and one of the leading indigenous writers in North America. He was the author of several acclaimed memoirs and more than a dozen novels. He won numerous awards and honors for his writing, including the People's Choice winner of the national Canada Reads competition in 2013, for Indian Horse. Page 1 of 11Page 1 of 11
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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Tim Curnow
4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful and significant novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2013
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A wonderful writer. Very spare prose style which says so much with so little. The story of Canada's First Nation people and their history of abuse by state and church and the continuing racism in Canadian society. Stolen generations of First Nation people is almost identical to the story of Australia's aborigines. The author is a First Nation Canadian novelsit of some disitnction.
Only downside was the retail price of the book was extraordinarily high for such a modest size paperback
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rosemurray
5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Wagamese's "Indian Horse", the book that changed my life.
Reviewed in Canada on 24 October 2015
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I read this book, from cover to cover, over 2 days, two days before I coincidentally met the author, Richard Wagamese, who has since become a dear friend. This book changed my life. My partner is a survivor of the residential school system; I knew little of his experience, until I read this book, and we were able to discuss the similarities to his experience, which deepened our love and understanding of each other. It inspired me to be an even greater activist and fighter for First Nations rights, causes and issues. This could stand as my most favourite book of all time. Should be must-read for secondary school students. It speaks to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconcilliation recommendations of May 2015. A cherished tome, if ever there was one.
16 people found this helpful
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Clarice
5.0 out of 5 stars Bought for a class, will be re-reading
Reviewed in Canada on 11 June 2020
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I originally bought this for one of my university courses as part of our curriculum. The story is so heartfelt and raw, filled to the brim with achingly realistic emotion. Wagamese does not hold back in his descriptions of the (very real) atrocities and abuses that were committed in the residential schools of Canada. The journey of Saul and his descriptions of his own trauma makes the reader sympathize with the situation that would otherwise be difficult to understand for someone who has never experienced that degree of trauma. The writing style is very easy and pleasant to read, despite the subject material not being very pleasant. Wagamese was an amazing writer, and because of that, I will be returning to this book, even though my course is finished. I recommend this novel to anyone who wants to learn about this stain on Canadian history through the eyes of someone who experienced it, and to anyone who wants a good cry and a good read.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A storey that needed telling
Reviewed in Canada on 18 January 2019
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Great book, this is a sad storey it's a guide to what the settler nations genocide against the first nations has created.it brings a tear to my eyes,to think that we as a nation have not yet dealt with what our fore father's did in the name of the church., King and country.we use frases like in God we trust, but carry a sword in the other hand ,dealing death, illnesses etc.in the last 150 years we have learned nothing about treating our fellow beings with the respect they deserve.the sovereign nations they are.
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pained
5.0 out of 5 stars Indian Horse
Reviewed in Canada on 6 February 2021
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Very good.Liked hearing the truths out the schools. I am Catholic, I never take people of "authority" at face value. I am deeply sorry for the children that were so abused,.mistreated, brutalized, and suffered into their adulthood with the scars in their spirit not only their physical scars. I hope someday we all realize we are all of the same creator. It was not only the Native Indian that suffered these abuses, it has been throughout the world and throughout the beginning of time, taking advantage.of.those weaker, smaller, younger,poorer in economics and of spirit.
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