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A poignant coming-of-age story following the friendships, hopes, fears, and struggles of a group of Native high school students from Winnipeg's North End illuminating what it's like to grow up forgotten, urban, poor, and Indigenous.
Word on the street is that this is the Tigers' last season. For Tomahawk "Tommy" Shields, an Indigenous, image-obsessed high school student from Winnipeg, the potential loss of his team serves as a stark reminder of his uncertain future. He can't help but feel that each of his peers has some skill or gift that he lacks, yet each of their perceived virtues hides darker truths too. Clinton is beloved by teachers, but his "good kid" disposition is a desparate attempt not to end up falling prey to the gang violence his older brother has become enmeshed in. Floyd has incredible talent on the ice, yet behind that talent lies deep insecurity about his multiracial background. And the adults that populate Tommy's life—his mother who struggles with schizophrenia; Pete, the wayward Zamboni driver; and elders Maggie and Olga—offer a mixture of well-intentioned but often misguided support and a depressing portent of what the future could hold.
Set in Winnipeg's north end, a remote neighborhood at the border of Canada's eastern woodlands and central prairies, Small Ceremonies follows a community that both literally and figuratively straddles two worlds. As its richly drawn characters navigate the thrilling independence of adulthood and the loss of innocence that accompanies adolescence, one can't help but root for Tommy and his community, even as Tommy himself reckons with his place in it.
"An assured and poignant coming-of-age story...[Edwards'] memorable novel grapples with both embracing and breaking free from a complicated heritage." —Booklist (starred review)
"[A] spirited debut...Edwards excels at describing how the Native characters face challenges both personal and structural as the novel barrels toward the season's tragic final match. This will stay with readers." —Publishers Weekly
"The geographical and familial landscape of the ironically named Whiteway clan yields a subtle and fascinating portrait of growing up Native in Manitoba. The understatement underscores the intensity and contradictions of outgrowing your home and self. This is a truly fine novel." —Percival Everett, author of James and Erasure
"Heartfelt, funny, and stirring, Small Ceremonies is an astonishing debut. Luminous enough to thaw a Manitoba hockey rink, this supple, sparkling novel follows an extended Indigenous family attempting to navigate Winnipeg's difficult urban terrain. Resurrecting hope from a world of inequity and disruption, Kyle Edwards fills these pages with soulful revelation. The result is a profound meditation on longing: for what was, what might've been and what's still possible." —Adam Johnson, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of The Orphan Master's Son
"In this compelling, multi-voiced first novel, Kyle Edwards carries us north to the landscape of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and into the geography of youth itself. This book—bracing, kaleidoscopic—made me relive those gritty, tender, fragile years before you are fully grown, when you still believe you can do both—stay rooted and fly free." —Danzy Senna, author of Caucasia and Colored Television
This information about Small Ceremonies was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kyle Edwards grew up on the Lake Manitoba First Nation and is a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation. A graduate of Ryerson University, he has worked as a journalist for Native News Online, ProPublica, and Maclean's, and has held fellowships at Harvard and Stanford Universities. He has won two National Magazine Awards for his reporting and was named Emerging Indigenous Journalist by the Canadian Association of Journalists in 2019. He is currently a Provost Fellow at the University of Southern California.
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