Ninan: Tiohtiá Ke, Montreal

Exiled from his community, a young Innu man finds himself adrift on the streets of Montreal.

Released from prison after ten years spent behind bars for the murder of his violent, alcoholic father, Élie Mestenapeo finds himself out in the world again, but alone. Banished for life from his community, Nutashkuan, he heads south to Montreal, where he becomes part of a new community--Cree, Nakota, Inuit, Innu, Mohawk, and Atikamekw come together in Cabot Square. There, Élie meets Mary and Tracy, Inuuk twin sisters who take him under their wing; Jimmy, a Nakota man who hands out hot meals to those the city has forgotten; and Mafia Doc, an aging, self-proclaimed nurse who refuses to abandon his tent even as winter's brutal cold descends. When old wounds threaten to reopen, Élie's loved ones worry what a search for truth might do to him and the community around him.

In this deeply compassionate novel, Michel Jean gives voice to those living on society's margins. With tenderness and unflinching honesty, he reveals lives scarred by violence and addiction but also sustained by resilience, kinship, and the faint, persistent light of hope.

SUSAN OURIOU is an award-winning fiction writer and literary translator with over seventy translations and co-translations of fiction, non-fiction, children's and young-adult literature to her credit. She has received the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation and, in 2024, her translation of Catherine Leroux's The Future won CBC's Canada Reads. Her translations have also been long-listed for awards such as the International Dublin Literary Award, the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and the Giller Prize as well as appearing on IBBY's Honor List. She has also published Nathan, a novel for young readers, and Damselfish, short-listed for the WGA's Georges Bugnet award for fiction.

MICHEL JEAN is an award-winning writer, and former news anchor and investigative journalist, much appreciated by the Quebec public. He worked at Radio-Canada and the Quebec television network TVA before devoting himself full-time to his writing. He has published over a dozen books including his bestselling novels Kukum, an exploration of his Innu roots and winner of the Prix France-Québec, and Qimmik, which deals with a harrowing chapter of Inuit history. His work has been translated into several languages. his most recent novel being Kabasa. Michel Jean has also edited two short story collections featuring Indigenous voices: Amun, released in fall 2016, and Wapke, published in May 2021, both of which are available in English.

Michel Jean is Innu from Mashteuiatsh, and his native origins resonate in many of his writings.