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SON OF A TRICKSTER

Eden Robinson

With striking originality and precision, Eden Robinson, the Giller-shortlisted author of the classic Monkey Beach and winner of the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award, blends humour with heartbreak in this compelling coming-of-age novel. Everyday teen existence meets indigenous beliefs, crazy family dynamics, and cannibalistic river otter... The exciting first novel in her trickster trilogy.
Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who's often wasted and wielding some kind of weapon. Jared does smoke and drink too much, and he does make the best cookies in town, and his mom is a mess, but he's also a kid who has an immense capacity for compassion and an impulse to watch over people more than twice his age, and he can't rely on anyone for consistent love and support, except for his flatulent pit bull, Baby Killer (he calls her Baby)--and now she's dead.

Jared can't count on his mom to stay sober and stick around to take care of him. He can't rely on his dad to pay the bills and support his new wife and step-daughter. Jared is only sixteen but feels like he is the one who must stabilize his family's life, even look out for his elderly neighbours. But he struggles to keep everything afloat...and sometimes he blacks out. And he puzzles over why his maternal grandmother has never liked him, why she says he's the son of a trickster, that he isn't human. Mind you, ravens speak to him--even when he's not stoned.
You think you know Jared, but you don't.

Haisla/Heiltsuk novelist EDEN ROBINSON is the author of a collection of short stories written when she was a Goth called Traplines, which won the Winifred Holtby Prize in the UK. Her two previous novels, Monkey Beach and Blood Sports, were written before she discovered she was gluten-intolerant and tend to be quite grim, the latter being especially gruesome because half-way through writing the manuscript, Robinson gave up a two-pack a day cigarette habit and the more she suffered, the more her characters suffered. Monkey Beach won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was a finalist for the Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award for Fiction. Son of a Trickster was written under the influence of pan-fried tofu and nutritional yeast, which may explain things but probably doesn't. The author lives in Kitimat, BC.
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Book

Published 2017-02-07 by Knopf Canada

Book

Published 2017-02-07 by Knopf Canada

Comments

Son of a Trickster is a unique, genuinely surprising novel from one of Canada’s finest writers, a blend of hardscrabble coming-of-age story with mythic fiction at its most powerfully subversive. It’s exactly as slippery as a trickster tale should be, changing direction and shape even as you convince yourself you know what’s going on, and what will likely happen next.… This is Robinson at her best. Read more...

If Raven and Trickster got a show on Netflix, no one could write it but Eden Robinson. Talking ravens, party drugs, deadbeat dads, murderous otters, Doctor Who—nobody brings together pop culture, indigenous culture and myth with more ferocity and humour. Son of a Trickster is my favourite book this year.

Robinson has a gift for making disparate elements come together into a convincing narrative, breathing myth, lore and magic into otherwise harsh realities. The novel clips along with short, pointed sentences and lively scenes of Jared's conundrum, building in raunchy crescendo as teen anger and spirit worlds collide.

The rst in a trilogy, Son of a Trickster is an incredibly engaging, coming- of-age story of an indigenous teen in northern British Columbia. Eden Robinson's almost magical ability to blend wry humor, magical realism and teenage reality will have you holding your breath for the next in the series.

Son of a Trickster and Trickster Drift by Eden Robinson -- being shot this summer as a TV series Read more...

Robinson ramps up the supernatural developments in the latter half of the novel; this long, slow build displays both her confidence and skill, as does the way she resists long, drawn-out explanations of how her supernatural world works.... The most impressive thing about Son of a Trickster is how Robinson can, when she wants to, cut through all of her jokes through the story’s absurd tone, and move past grandiose implications of how the supernatural intersects with Jared’s life. In these instances, she manages small, affecting insights and sad moments. Read more...

Eden Robinson is a writer with a magical touch. Crisp prose, taut dialogue, and a cast of maniacal characters you sure as hell don't want living next door.

Son of a Trickster is a finalist for the 2018 BC Book Prizes Read more...

Eden Robinson discusses Son of a Trickster in her Saturday Rumpus Interview Read more...

Eden Robinson is more than funny, more than intelligent, more than a novelist—she’s an enchanter. Son of a Trickster creates a terrifically believable teenage character who lives both on the rez and in a witchy soup of blood, sex and magic. Harry Potter goes to reform school. Full of sparks, full of pain, full of joy.

Laughing through darkness: an interview with Eden Robinson Read more...

Tricking the Trickster: A Q&A with Eden Robinson Read more...

Son of a Trickster is filled with darkness and squalor and obscenity. And yet, startlingly, it brings the reader to a place of wonder and mystery and magic. It is a story of a boy born into a violent history. It is a story of a boy born into a magnificent culture. Robinson bravely reconciles these oppositions in a story that is equal parts irreverent humour and astute wisdom.

Son of a Trickster wins the Adult Adward winner of the 2018 Copper Cylinder Awards! Read more...

Eden Robinson, Omar El Akkad among shortlisted authors for Sunburst speculative fiction prize Read more...

SON OF A TRICKSTER is #6 on The Maclean’s Bestsellers list: Week of Mar. 19.

Son of a Trickster is shortlisted for The Giller Prize

Eden Robinson is a masterful storyteller. Shimmering with deft prose, unforgettable characters, and haunting truths, Son of a Trickster reminds us that sometimes the surest way to solid ground is through believing in magic.

SON OF A TRICKSTER is #3 on the bestselling books in Canada (April 22th)

Author Eden Robinson shares stories of the trickster in new novel Read more...

A charmingly chaotic tale. Read more...

Catherine Hernandez, Omar El Akkad, Eden Robinson nominated for OLA's Evergreen Award Read more...