Empire of Wild

Broken-hearted Joan has been searching for her husband, Victor, for almost a year ever since he went missing on the night they had their first serious argument. One terrible, hungover morning in a Walmart parking lot in a little town near Georgian Bay, she is drawn to a revival tent where the local Mtis have been flocking to hear a charismatic preacher named Eugene Wolff. By the time she staggers into the tent, the service is over. But as she is about to leave, she hears an unmistakable voice.

She turns, and there Victor is. The same face, the same eyes, the same hands. But his hair is short and he's wearing a suit and he doesn't recognize her at all. No, he insists, she's the one suffering a delusion: he's the Reverend Wolff and his only mission is to bring his people to Jesus. Except that, as Joan soon discovers, that's not all the enigmatic Wolff is doing.

With only the help of Ajean, a foul-mouthed euchre shark with a knowledge of the old ways, and her odd, Johnny-Cash-loving, 12-year-old nephew Zeus, Joan has to find a way to remind the Reverend Wolff of who he really is. If he really is Victor. Her life, and the life of everyone she loves, depends upon it. (Random House Canada)

Cherie Dimaline is a Mtis author and editor whose award-winning fiction has been published and anthologized internationally.

In 2017, her novelThe Marrow Thieveswon theGovernor General's Literary Award for Young people's literature textand theKirkus Prizefor young readers' literature. It iscurrently being adapted for television.

The Marrow Thieveswas defended byJullyBlackonCanada Reads2018.

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• Cherie Dimaline's next novel, Empire of Wild, coming out in Sept. 2019
• What getsCherie Dimaline through the tough parts of writing
• The message Cherie Dimaline has for young Indigenous readers
• How Cherie Dimaline found hope in a dystopian future
• 6 books that Cherie Dimaline will never forget
• The top 10bestsellingCanadian books of 2018
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• 35 books to read for National Indigenous History Month

From the book

Why Cherie Dimaline wrote Empire of Wild

"I remembered that I am here to tell stories. The stories I tell are from the community, my heart and from my family.Empire of Wildwas the book that comes afterThe Marrow Thievesbecause it is based on a traditional story that my grandmother used to tell me all the time. Writing the bookreally allowed me to fall in love with the art of story and forget aboutthe business of story.

The stories I tell are from the community, my heart and from my family.- Cherie Dimaline

"I had so much fun writing Joan inEmpire of Wild. One of my earliest experiences with how women and sex are perceived in publishing was when I had just written the first part of my 2013 novelThe Girl Who Grew a Galaxy. I initially wrote a female character in that book who was very sex positive. She made her own decisions and she wasn't victimized.

"When I was writing Joan, I decided that I wasgoing to write a real woman. The women that I know, the women that I love, the women who raised me, the womanI hope I am. Women who have the great gift of having autonomy, of having power and being full of passion."

Read more in her interview with The Next Chapter.

Interviews with Cherie Dimaline

Metro Morning6:24Cherie Dimaline on Metro Morning

Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves, speaks with Metro Morning host Matt Galloway about her novel and what it means to young Indigenous readers to see themselves represented in literature.

Other books by Cherie Dimaline