Excerpt from Black Bear by Trina Moyles, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Being in my brother's home, watching him parent, I could empathize with that which stressed him: providing for his children, and struggling toward his goal of building a home on the land where they'd feel safe—all while managing the addictive urge to use again.

When I saw beyond the one-dimensional lens of my brother as an 'addict', an oil worker, as someone whose political beliefs I didn't agree with, I realized it's possible to love someone without agreeing with them, or even fully understanding them. My brother and I might never really know one another, but we could practice love and empathy for the other.

We could learn to lean into the paradox of that which polarized us.

Excerpted from Black Bear by Trina Moyles. Copyright © 2026 by Trina Moyles. Excerpted by permission of Pegasus Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.