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A Novel
by Lisa Bird-Wilson
Book Reviewed by:An Indigenous woman adopted by white parents goes in search of her identity in this unforgettable debut novel about family, race, and history.
This is the story of a woman in search of herself, in every sense. When we first meet Ruby, a Métis woman in her thirties, her life is spinning out of control. She's angling to sleep with her counselor while also rekindling an old relationship she knows will only bring more heartache. But as we soon learn, Ruby's story is far more complex than even she can imagine.
Given up for adoption as an infant, Ruby is raised by a white couple who understand little of her Indigenous heritage. This is the great mystery that hovers over Ruby's life—who her people are and how to reconcile what is missing. As the novel spans time and multiple points of view, we meet the people connected to Ruby: her birth parents and grandparents; her adoptive parents; the men and women Ruby has been romantically involved with; a beloved uncle; and Ruby's children. Taken together, these characters form a kaleidoscope of stories, giving Ruby's life dignity and meaning.
Probably Ruby is a dazzling novel about a bold, unapologetic woman taking control of her life and story, and marks the debut of a major new voice in Indigenous fiction.
This excerpt contains sexually graphic content
Kal
2013
"I like to be in charge," said Ruby. "I pretend I like watching him jerk off, just so I won't have to touch him. My commitment level's kind of low on this one."
Kal's face showed no emotion. Instead he looked at the sunglasses resting on top of Ruby's head. Kal's office was in the interior of a downtown building and had no windows. Outside, it had been raining for days. He asked, "Is it sunny out there now, Ruby?"
His question made her laugh. She had a royal, attention-getting laugh, big enough to be heard out in Kal's waiting room. Which was good. Ruby wanted anyone out there to know Kal and she were having a great time. Try and top that, sucker. That's what she hoped her laugh said to any waiting client she'd subconsciously pegged as a rival for Kal's affections. And by "anyone" she mostly meant the shiny, obvious "Lori," seen on one occasion leaving his office and stopping to make an appointment on her way ...
Bird-Wilson's background as a poet is apparent in her rich, evocative language. Rose longs to return to the home of her birth, "Where the sound of shaken leaves on dry branches ripped across the acres like soft gossip." Chapters that feature the perspectives of Ruby's biological mother, father and other relatives heighten the book's complexity, showing the reader where Ruby has come from in ways she cannot access herself. Probably Ruby is a deft work of characterization. Though some might find the novel's disordered structure a challenge, it is effective in exhibiting Ruby as the sum of her parts — a person affected by intergenerational trauma and a history she cannot fully know...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Lisa Butts).
Christy Lefteri, bestselling author of Songbirds and The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Told from different viewpoints, this multifaceted narrative sparkles with life as we piece together Ruby's story, starting before she is even born. It is utterly heartbreaking that we see parts of Ruby's life that she herself cannot perceive, a compelling chord that stays with us throughout the novel. This is a beautiful, unusual, and insightful story about the lost pieces of one woman's life and Indigenous identity. Imbolo Mbue, bestselling and award-winning author of How Beautiful We Were and Behold the Dreamers
"Writing from the depths of her heart, Lisa Bird-Wilson has gifted us a passionate exploration of identity and belonging and a celebration of our universal desire to love and be loved." - Kelli Jo Ford, author of Crooked Hallelujah
Probably Ruby reminds us that our stories are acts of survival. That it's not 'so much the question of what [we've] inherited, but what [we] do with it.' That grief, too, can be a gift. Written in prose to be savored, Bird-Wilson's novel and its heroine will stay with me for a long time." -In Lisa Bird-Wilson's novel Probably Ruby, a chapter set in Ruby's teenage years features references to the real-life 1991 murder of a 43-year-old Cree man, Leo LaChance, by a self-proclaimed white supremacist and member of the Ku Klux Klan named Carney Milton Nerland. LaChance was killed in a Prince Albert, Saskatchewan pawn/gun shop on the evening of January 28th. He was attempting to sell some fur pelts, and after discovering that the shop of the fur trader he usually did business with was closed, he went next door to the pawn shop, which was owned by Nerland. It's not clear what exactly transpired in the pawn shop, but investigators believe Nerland fired a gun into the floor two times and then shot Leo LaChance as he was leaving. A ...
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If you liked Probably Ruby, try these:
Pulling the Chariot of the Sun
by Shane McCrae
Published 2023
An unforgettable memoir by an award-winning poet about being kidnapped from his Black father and raised by his white supremacist grandparents.
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Published 2024
The long-awaited, profoundly moving, and unforgettable new novel from PEN Award–winning Native American author Mona Susan Power, spanning three generations of Yanktonai Dakota women from the 19th century to the present day.
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