A Grandmother Begins the Story

From award-winning M├⌐tis author Michelle Porter,a powerfully funny and moving story told not just by five generations of M├⌐tis womenbut also by the landthe bison that surround themand two utterly captivating dogs. Carter is a young mother on a quest to find the true meaning of her heritagewhich she only learned of in her teens. Allie is trying to make up for the lost years with her first born and to protect Carter from the hurt she herself suffered from her own mother. Lucie wants the granddaughter she’s never met to help her get to her ancestors in the afterlife. And Genevi├¿ve is determined to conquer her demons–before the fire inside burns her up–with the help of the sister she lost but has never been without. MeanwhileMam├⌐in the afterlifeknows that all their stories began with her; she must find a way to cut herself from the last threads that keep her tethered to the livingjust as they must find their own paths forward. And a young bison wants to understand why he keeps being moved and whether he should make a break for it and run for his life. This extraordinary noveltold by a chorus of vividly realizedwiseconfusedstruggling characters attempting to make sense of this life and the nextheralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in literary fiction.