The Strangers
Ratings2
Average rating4.8
15
Ratings2
Average rating4.8
#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE ATWOOD GIBSON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 MANITOBA BOOK AWARDS’ CAROL SHIELDS WINNIPEG BOOK AWARD, MARGARET LAURENCE AWARD FOR FICTION, AND MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE 2021 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE A GLOBE & MAIL BEST BOOK From the bestselling author of The Break comes a staggering intergenerational saga that explores how connected we are, even when we’re no longer together—even when we’re forced apart. Cedar has nearly forgotten what her family looks like. Phoenix has nearly forgotten what freedom feels like. And Elsie has nearly given up hope. Nearly. After time spent in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Although she grapples with the pain of being separated from her mother, Elsie, and sister, Phoenix, she’s hoping for a new chapter in her life, only to find herself once again in a strange house surrounded by strangers. From a youth detention centre, Phoenix gives birth to a baby she’ll never get to raise and tries to forgive herself for all the harm she’s caused (while wondering if she even should). Elsie, struggling with addiction and determined to turn her life around, is buoyed by the idea of being reunited with her daughters and strives to be someone they can depend on, unlike her own distant mother. These are the Strangers, each haunted in her own way. Between flickering moments of warmth and support, the women diverge and reconnect, fighting to survive in a fractured system that pretends to offer success but expects them to fail. Facing the distinct blade of racism from those they trusted most, they urge one another to move through the darkness, all the while wondering if they’ll ever emerge safely on the other side. A breathtaking companion to her bestselling debut The Break, Vermette’s The Strangers brings readers into the dynamic world of the Stranger family, the strength of their bond, the shared pain in their past, and the light that beckons from the horizon. This is a searing exploration of race, class, inherited trauma, and matrilineal bonds that—despite everything—refuse to be broken.
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Similar to its predecessor, The Strangers follows several women of a Metis family throughout the years. Vermette is a good story teller. She expertely guides you through layers and layers of lived and inherited trauma, despair and addiction, violence and sorrow, only to give you a few cathartic moments to shed some happy tears. I almost felt slightly manipulated. Most of her characters are damaged, carry burdens that can be traced back to traumatic experiences. I found Vermette's choice of not discosing some of these triggering events really interesting, even though readers of [b:The Break 29220494 The Break Katherena Vermette https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472734124l/29220494.SY75.jpg 49455862] might recall them. As if to highlight, that we humans are not that easy to solve after all. One ends the book, mostly remembering the females characters, as they are the main focus. And it becomes easy to draw the cause and effect lines of neglect and damage between them. Forgetting entirely the male family members who are so entirely lacking, and therefore most responsible for the bad circumstances these girls and women found themselves in. I probably should be slightly worried that I felt most drawn to the one character that was simply raging at everyone else in the novel.
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