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real ones
real ones: a novel | Katherena Vermette
5 posts | 3 read | 4 to read
*LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 GILLER PRIZE* From the author of the nationally bestselling Strangers saga comes a heartrending story of two Michif sisters who must face their past trauma when their mother is called out for false claims to Indigenous identity. June and her sister, lyn, are NDNs—real ones. Lyn has her pottery artwork, her precocious kid, Willow, and the uncertain terrain of her midlife to keep her mind, heart and hands busy. June, a Métis Studies professor, yearns to uproot from Vancouver and move. With her loving partner, Sigh, and their faithful pup, June decides to buy a house in the last place on earth she imagined she’d end up: back home in Winnipeg with her family. But then into lyn and June’s busy lives a bomb drops: their estranged and very white mother, Renee, is called out as a “pretendian.” Under the name (get this) Raven Bearclaw, Renee had topped the charts in the Canadian art world for winning awards and recognition for her Indigenous-style work. The news is quickly picked up by the media and sparks an enraged online backlash. As the sisters are pulled into the painful tangle of lies their mother has told and the hurt she has caused, searing memories from their unresolved childhood trauma, which still manages to spill into their well curated adult worlds, come rippling to the surface. In prose so powerful it could strike a match, real ones is written with the same signature wit and heart on display in The Break, The Strangers and The Circle. An energetic, probing and ultimately hopeful story, real ones pays homage to the long-fought, hard-won battles of Michif (Métis) people to regain ownership of their identity and the right to say who is and isn’t Métis.
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LeahBergen
real ones: a novel | Katherena Vermette
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Thank you, @TrishB (my fellow Scorpio 😆), for this lovely birthday book! It sounds so good and the cover art is fabulous. And it was longlisted for this year‘s Giller Prize, too!

I hope your birthday was as good as mine is shaping up to be! 😘😘

TrishB Glad it arrived! You got some fabulous books so far 📚 have a brilliant rest of the day 😘 5d
Tamra Anxious to read this one! 5d
squirrelbrain Sounds wonderful! 5d
See All 11 Comments
youneverarrived Happy Birthday Leah 🩷 that‘s a beautiful cover. 5d
Billypar Happy birthday!! 🎂🎉 Looks like a great birthday book haul 📚 5d
quietjenn Happy birthday, Leah! I got it was wonderful. 🎉💜 5d
LeahBergen @TrishB I did! Thank you! 😘 4d
LeahBergen @Tamra It‘s been getting some good reviews! 4d
LeahBergen @youneverarrived @Billypar @quietjenn Thanks, everyone! 😘😘 4d
Suet624 Happy belated birthday! 5h
47 likes11 comments
review
BookishTrish
real ones: a novel | Katherena Vermette
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Pickpick

First of all, I think we should get Julie Flett to do the art for more book covers - love this cover so much. Second, I almost didn‘t read this book because of how traumatized I was by Vermette‘s (amazingly written) other books. This one is much gentler in many respects- the story of two sisters who deal with their famous mother being outed as a pretendian in different ways.

BarbaraBB Gorgeous cover indeed. I‘ll check out this author who I haven‘t heard of before. 2w
43 likes2 stack adds1 comment
review
MysticFaerie
real ones: a novel | Katherena Vermette
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Pickpick

5🌟/5🌟

review
mcctrish
real ones: a novel | Katherena Vermette
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Pickpick

I have loved KV since I read The Break, and her 4th book involving The Stranger family cements my love! This generation of Strangers feels like they are healing and our world will be better with them in it ( I can‘t believe they aren‘t real) so much to learn in KV‘s books about indigenous culture, trauma, grief, overcoming/surviving/thriving

Tamra Love her work too! 1mo
mcctrish @Tamra she‘s going back to her poetic roots even more in this one 1mo
ShelleyBooksie This sounds really good! Does it work as a standalone? New author to me 1mo
mcctrish @ShelleyBooksie I think it would. I love the multigenerational series showing each branch of the family tree and their place in the world 1mo
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mcctrish
real ones: a novel | Katherena Vermette
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I was supposed to see KV speak last night but sister bailed on me and I couldn‘t muster up going out on my own but I am loving reading her latest book