Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction & Related items

PROBABLY RUBY

Lisa Bird-Wilson

For readers of Tommy Orange's There There and Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries, Probably Ruby is an audacious, brave, and beautiful novel about an adopted woman's search for her Indigenous identity.

Relinquished as an infant, Ruby is adopted by Alice and Mel, a less-than-desirable couple who can't afford to complain too loudly about Ruby's Indigenous roots. But when her new parents' marriage falls apart, Ruby finds herself vulnerable and in compromising situations that lead her to search, in the unlikeliest of places, for her Indigenous identity.

Lifted from the mysterious Relationship Web at the front of the book, in separate chapters the people connected to Ruby spring to vibrant and unforgettable life. Together they create a map of Ruby's life. All of them, one way or another, abandon her.

Probably Ruby explores how all of us find and invent ourselves. It's a perfectly crafted novel, with effortless, nearly imperceptible shifts in time and perspective, exquisitely chosen detail, natural dialogue, and emotional control that results in breathtaking levels of tension and revelation, until Ruby finally connects with her roots.

Lisa Bird-Wilson is a Saskatchewan Métis and nêhiyaw (Cree) writer whose work has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies across Canada. Her story collection, Just Pretending (Coteau Books, 2013), was a finalist for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award; won four Saskatchewan Book Awards, including 2014 Book of the Year, and was the 2019 One Book, One Province selection for Saskatchewan. It is taught in universities, and now she has the rights to it back too. Bird-Wilson's debut poetry collection, The Red Files (Nightwood Editions, 2016), is inspired by family and archival sources and reflects on the legacy of the residential school system and the fragmentation of families and histories. Lisa Bird-Wilson lives in Saskatoon.

Available products
Book Published by Hogarth / Random House
Book Published by Hogarth / Random House

Comments

Writing from the depths of her heart, Lisa Bird-Wilson has gifted us a passionate exploration of identity and belonging and a celebration of our universal desire to love and be loved.

"In Probably Ruby, Lisa Bird-Wilson explores the deep vulnerability inherent in having no sense of one's place in the world and particularly the Indigenous world. Bird-Wilson effectively captures the sadness, anger, loneliness and alienation that Indigenous children lost to the child-welfare system are plagued by as they search for a sense of meaning and identity. In turns raw, tender, funny, despairing and hopeful, Probably Ruby tells a story that needs hearing."

"A bighearted portrait of an Indigenous woman whose transracial adoption spurs a lifelong quest to discoveror perhaps createher identity."

In a time when truth is coveted, 'Probably Ruby' is a refreshing reminder of the realities of forced Indigenous adoption and family separation. Bird-Wilson's writing is at times poetic and ever compelling. We are fortunate to have her and Ruby among us.

The Well-Read Native Book Club, an influential virtual book club focused on indigenous voices, has chosen Probably Ruby as its Feb/March 2022 pick. Read more...

" Moving. vivid . the fragmented nature lends a sense of verisimilitude to this painful story of a fractured family history, and readers will be carried along by Ruby's vitality and perseverance. This is well worth a look."

French: Editions Hashtag

Ruby never disappoints with her big heart and outrageous sense of humor - and her resilient search for her own history.

"In Probably Ruby, Lisa Bird-Wilson takes us along on a woman's deeply poignant journey in search of self, identity, and the reclaiming of an Indigenous heritage that has been taken from her. In Ruby's story, we see the powerful threads of family in one's life that can shape, even from afar. This story will stay with you."

"Told from different viewpoints, this multi-faceted narrative sparkles with life as we piece together Ruby's story, starting before she is even born. It is utterly heartbreaking that we see parts of Ruby's life that she herself cannot perceive, a compelling chord that stays with us throughout the novel. This is a beautiful, unusual, and insightful story about the lost pieces of one woman's life and indigenous identity."

In this time of crises and isolation, I've come to cherish Probably Ruby. It details legacies of struggle without giving in to spectacle. It illuminates, in language of deepest care and artistic exactness, the diverse relations and irreducible complexity of an unforgettable life. Lisa Bird-Wilson is someone I urge you to read.

"Probably Ruby reminds us that our stories are acts of survival. That 'it's not so much a question of what [we] inherit but what [we] do with it.' That grief, too, can be a gift. Written in prose to be savored, Bird-Wilson's novel and its heroine will stay with me for a long time."

"In this time of crises and isolation, I've come to cherish Probably Ruby. It details legacies of struggle without giving in to spectacle. It illuminates, in language of deepest care and artistic exactness, the diverse relations and irreducible complexity of an unforgettable life. Lisa Bird-Wilson is someone I urge you to read."

It's a brilliant piece that takes Indigenous literature in some fascinating new directions. Lisa is an extraordinary stylist, and this novel explores Indigenous women's lives in a way that is empowering and that doesn't follow the usual tropes of trauma and victimization. I think of her as a Michif Alice Munro.