Book- Keeper’n Me

Keeper’n Me by Richard Wagamese.

At three years old, Garnet Raven is taken from his home on an Ojibway reserve and placed in a series of foster homes. In his mid-teens, he escapes at the fist opportunity only to find himself cast adrift on the streets of the big city, trying to avoid its bleak underbelly.

By age twenty, Garnet is in jail. While there, he receives an unexpected letter from his long-forgotten native family, and the sudden communication from his past spurs him to return to the reserve following his release from jail. Deciding to stay awhile, Garnet’t life is changed completely when he is initiated into the ways  of the Ojibway – both ancient and modern – by Keeper, a friend of his grandfather, and one of the last founts of their people’s history. Garnet comes to discover his sense of place – and of self.

By turns funny, poignant and mystical, Keeper’n Me casts fresh light on the redemptive power of one’s community and traditions.

Richard Wagamese (1955-2017), an Ojibway from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in northern Ontario, was recognized as one of Canada’s Foremost First Nations authors and story tellers. He authored fifteen books including his best selling memoirs One Native Life (2008) and One Story, One Song (2011), which received the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. His acclaimed novel Indian Horse (2012) was the 2013 People’s Choice winner in CBC’s Canada Reads competition. His final book, Embers (2016), a collection of Ojibway meditations, was shortlisted for a BC Book Prize.