Waubgeshig Rice - Moon of the Crusted Snow

The late Richard Wagamese was a close friend and enormous support who kindly encouraged my writing. There is a long list of Indigenous authors and storytellers who have inspired and mentored me on this journey. They’ve blazed a trail for aspiring writers like me, and continue to create powerfully important works that are changing the world around us. One I’d like to acknowledge is Richard Van Camp, who offered some vital feedback after reading an advance copy of this book that resulted in the changing of a key detail. He’s also a hugely talented and wonderful human being!

Family is everything to me. In recent years we’ve lost three monumental loved ones who shaped my life around stories. My aunt Elaine Kelly was my first teacher and opened my eyes to the world of Indigenous literature. My grandmother Ruth Shipman was a master orator who made up stories on the spot. My grandmother Aileen Rice shared ancient Anishinaabe tales to build a foundation of culture. They are greatly missed and loved always.

Thanks and big love to my mother, Mona Joudry, my stepparents, grandfather, brothers, stepsiblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, extended family, and friends for their ongoing encouragement.

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge everyone in my life who told me stories and listened to me tell stories. Thanks to Lee Maracle for suggesting this simple yet important gratitude, and for her ongoing guidance and support.

Waubgeshig Riceis an author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. His first short story collection, Midnight Sweatlodge , was inspired by his experiences growing up in an Anishinaabe community, and won an Independent Publishers Book Award in 2012. His debut novel, Legacy , followed in 2014. He currently works as a multi-platform journalist for CBC in Sudbury. In 2014, he received the Anishinabek Nation’s Debwewin Citation for excellence in First Nation Storytelling. Waubgeshig now splits his time between Sudbury and Wasauksing.

A profoundly moving exploration of our capacity to heal one another.

Ellie and Eric Nyland have moved their two sons back to Eric’s childhood farmhouse, hoping for a fresh start. But there’s no denying it, their family is falling apart, each one of them isolated by private sorrows, stresses, and missed signals. With every passing day, Ellie’s hopes are buried deeper in the harsh winter snows.

When Eric finds Hannah Finch, the girl across the road, wandering alone in the bitter cold, his rusty police instincts kick in, and he soon discovers there are bad things happening in the girl’s house. With nowhere else to send her, the Nylands reluctantly agree to let Hannah stay with them until she can find a new home after the Christmas holidays. But Hannah proves to be more balm than burden, and the Nylands discover that the only thing harder than taking Hannah in may be letting her go.

ECW digital titles are available online wherever ebooks are sold. Visit ecwpress.comfor more details. To receive special offers, bonus content and a look at what’s next at ECW, sign up for our newsletter!

Copyright © Waubgeshig Rice, 2018

Published by ECW Press

665 Gerrard Street East

Toronto, ON M4M 1Y2

416-694-3348 / ecwpress.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Editor for the press: Susan Renouf

Cover design: Michel Vrana

Cover artwork: © David Caesar / www.davidcaesar.com

Author photo: Shilo Adamson

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Rice, Waubgeshig, 1979-, author

Moon of the crusted snow : a novel / Waubgeshig Rice.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77041-400-6 (softcover).—

ISBN 978-1-77305-244-1 (HTML).—

ISBN 978-1-77305-245-8 (PDF)

I. Title.

PS8635.I246M66 2018 C813’.6 C2018-902543-3 C2018-902544-1

The publication of Moon of the Crusted Snow has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country, and by the Government of Canada. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays. Ce livre est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada . We also acknowledge the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), an agency of the Government of Ontario, and the contribution of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.