Author: Michell Good
Publisher: HarperCollins.ca

Winner: Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, Amazon First Novel Awards, Kobo Emerging Author Prize. Finalist: Scotiabank Giller Prize, Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize, BC & Yukon Book Prize. Shortlist: Indigenous Voices Awards. Finalist: Kobo Emerging Author Prize. National Bestseller, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year, a CBC Best Book of the Year, an Apple Best Book of the Year, a Kobo Best Book of the Year, an Indigo Best Book of the Year.

Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.

Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.

Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.

With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.

While not technically a young-adult book, this could easily be classified as one, given that the novel begins when the characters are teenagers, reveals their childhoods through backflashes, and mostly dwells on delivering them into young adulthood.

The novel is very well written and difficult to put down, but given its exploration of indigenous characters forced into residential schools – characters trying to survive the devastating effects, it’s not an uplifting read. Just an insightful, compelling and essential read. The fact that it follows five different characters (two male, three female) whose lives intertwine, adds substantial depth, and allows the reader to see both hope and hopelessness close up: the many paths that can emanate from trauma.

Indigenous reviewers have called it “wounding and powerful,” “filled with triumph, survival and healing” and “a compassionate, devastating window into the human cost of colonialism.” All true descriptions even if I found the final third of the novel dragged a little. Also, I’m not sure how realistic it is that all the mothers of the characters are perfect people (until their children are taken away). And yet, the point that those mothers’ lives are also derailed is well made.

It’s not just a good read. It’s an important read, a piece of history about which no one should be in the dark. Let’s hope Michelle Good keeps on writing. This debut novel is an outstanding achievement and her indigenous voice is much needed.

-Pam Withers