Shandi Mitchell - Under This Unbroken Sky

Myron pushes back the too-long sleeves of his father’s leather jacket, freeing his hands. His arms, all muscle and sinew, strain under the weight of the future. He hoists the bag on his shoulder and carries it to the cart.

Maria turns toward Ivan, squirming to keep his bum from sliding off the narrow back edge. Soon he will need new pants. She places her hand on his chest to calm his sobbing heart. “Hold on tight.”

She walks to the front of the cart, counting their heads.

“My hotovi?” Are we ready?

The children nod their assent.

Myron picks up the reins to lead the horse. They watch their mother. The morning sun in their faces. Maria lifts the hem of her skirt and walks.

Myron rubs the horse’s nose. His feet slide in his father’s oversized boots. Tch-tch-tch. The cart lurches ahead.

The children sway to its roll, their eyes fixed on the graying house and the prairies unfolding between them.

I AM INDEBTED TO MANY FOR THE CREATION OF THIS WORK:

Those who read my early, tentative scenes and drafts and responded with such enthusiasm: Carol Bruneau, Richard Cumyn, Gwen Davies, Stephen Kimber, Alice Kuipers, and Daria Salamon.

The Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia Mentorship Program and the Sage Hill Writing Experience. Jane Buss, who took me under her wing and was the first to cry. Sue Goyette for her mentorship and guiding light, who believed long before I dared to say the word novel . Steven Galloway for challenging me not to look away when I was most afraid. Janice Kulyk Keefer for asking how. Heather Sangster and Olga Gardner Galvin, my copyeditor s, for making it better when I thought there was nothing more to find. Orysia Tracz for caring so deeply.

Though the characters and their stories are fictional, I tried to set their lives in a realistic framework anchored in historical fact. I could not have created their world without the Provincial Archives of Alberta, Alberta Justice Department, Government of Canada National Parole Board, and the Government of the Province of Alberta—Department of Lands and Mines.

I used photographs for inspiration and relied on the incredible resources of virtual museums and photo galleries for my research: Glenbow Museum—Photographic Archives, the Great Depression of Canada, the American Experience Surviving the Dust Bowl, Alberta Depression Years, Saskatchewan’s Heritage Multimedia Gallery, Ukrainian Museum in New York City—Holodomor (The Great Famine), and the Holodomor Photographic Archives, Ukraine.

I learned from those who collected Ukrainian folklore, folktales, and customs, and shared them with those who had lost or forgotten them.

My family: Paul for the first spell check. Joanne for always being there. Shawn for all that he has taught me. Ron, Connie, and Christine for their blessing and sharing of all that is prairie. Uncle Marvin and Aunt Xan for family recipes. Baba, whose stories I never had a chance to hear. Mom MacLeod for reading the characters as if they were alive. Mom Mitchell, who never doubted. Dad, where it all began.

Suzanne Brandreth, Sally Harding, Dean Cooke, and Mary Hu of the Cooke Agency for their unfailing quest to bring this book to the world. And especially Suzanne, who said yes.

My extraordinary trinity of editors who made it all shine and their creative teams who took such pride in every detail of their art. Nicole Winstanley of Penguin Canada for her passion, wisdom, and gentle, brilliant clarity. Arzu Tahsin of Weidenfeld and Nicolson, who asked for more light. Claire Wachtel, Jonathan Burnham, and Julia Novitch of HarperCollins US, who trusted.

Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage—Culture Division for helping to keep food on the table and a roof over my head by investing in the writings of an East Coast Prairie girl.

Kino for teaching me the way of dogs.

And Alan

for everything.

SHANDI MITCHELLis an award-winning Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. Her short films have screened at numerous international festivals, and she is a recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts endowment. Mitchell spent her childhood on a military base on the prairies and now makes her home in Nova Scotia, on the east coast of Canada, with her husband, Alan, and their dog, Annie. Under This Unbroken Sky is her first novel.

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Jacket art by Marc Yankus

Jacket design by Archie Ferguson

UNDER THIS UNBROKEN SKY. Copyright © 2009 by Shandi Mitchell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition July 2009

ISBN 978-0-06-196002-4

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