Permanent Astonishment

The powerful new memoir from one of Canada's most beloved and acclaimed Indigenous authors. I was born in the most beautiful place on the face of the planet. . . . A region of the world blessed by nature a thousand times, its remoteness ensures its status as the world's best-kept secret. From one of Canada's most acclaimed Indigenous writers and performing artists, Permanent Astonishment is a celebration of Tomson Highway's birthplace--northern Manitoba where it meets Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and what is now Nunavut, a place mesmerizing for its beauty and its vastness--and an analysis, both hilarious and sharp, of how the sly humour of Cree culture and the shape-shifting qualities of the language itself enabled the Cree people to survive conquest. With this book, readers will have the gift of Tomson's magical world, in the company of Tomson himself as he returns with such unreserved love to the landscape of his childhood. As Tomson puts it, Every moment not lived with joy is a moment wasted. If I haven't laughed a hundred times in one day, I haven't lived that day. This book will make you laugh. And laugh great gusts of laughter.