Moon of the Crusted Snow

A Novel

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Pub Date 02 Oct 2018 | Archive Date 01 Aug 2018

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Description

A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice

With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds as the food supply dwindles. While the band council and a pocket of community members struggle to maintain order, an unexpected visitor arrives, escaping the crumbling society to the south. Soon after, others follow.

The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.

Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.

A daring post-apocalyptic novel from a powerful rising literary voice

With winter looming, a small northern Anishinaabe community goes dark. Cut off, people become passive and confused. Panic builds...


A Note From the Publisher

WAUBGESHIG RICE is 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.

WAUBGESHIG RICE is 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...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781770414006
PRICE $14.95 (USD)
PAGES 324

Average rating from 21 members


Featured Reviews

I am always fascinated and interested in reading about Canada’s First Nations communities. I read so many books when in the country and visited as many places as i could to find about their way of life,culture and to learn from them. This book does that and more by blending a really tense story, with great characters and a text peppered with Ashinaabe words. It all makes for one interesting tapestry of a story and I was enthralled throughout.

This book turns a lot of things on their heads. What happens when the white people, the outsiders come into this story? What do the First nations do and how do they cope with their new struggles? Now they are the ones who can help others..

An interesting tale and one I really enjoyed becoming immersed in. A unique perspective. I would love to read more from this author!

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love reading about an apocalyptic event in a unique setting. These are self-reliant people that are used to getting by and using the land. That being said, many had become complacent with the influx of modern society. When the modern world isn’t available anymore, how do people react? This is the story that is laid out here, the characters are relatable and interesting and the story moves at steady pace. The conclusion was satisfying for the type of situation they are forced to live with. All in all a good apocalyptic read.
Thank you Netgalley for this early release copy.

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A story about a small, northern First nation community and what happens when they suddenly find themselves cut off. Some event knocks out cell service, power, and deliveries and they must find a way to survive and assist each other through the coming winter. They find many challenges within as well as those brought by several white people who come in from the south. A good read with an I interesting perspective and look into the lives of these First Nation communities.

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Thank You Net Galley for the free ARC.

Post-apocalyptic tale from a different perspective. In the Anishanaabe community, losing electricity and satellite service is not all that unusual in winter and at first it is blamed on a coming storm. Not until two of their own return from the southern parts of the land, do the leaders realize that it is a much bigger problem and they try to organize food and heat to survive the winter.

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As someone who has read many dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels, I enjoyed the change in pace with this one. Rather than taking place after society has crumbled, this one takes place as it is just beginning and focuses on an Anishinaabe community. It is a slow-burn, but from the very first page I could tell that there was something sinister lurking. I love that the author included snippets of the Ojibwe language and culture, and that he subtly included First Nations history and current wrongdoings against First Nations communities (such as the exorbitant prices of food in Northern communities). This is a story of family and community, a story of self-reliance and a connection to the land, and a story of racism and the outcomes of colonialism.

“And when it became clear that they were never supposed to last in this situation on this land in the first place, they decided to take control of their own destiny. Their ancestors were displaced from their original homeland in the south and the white people who forced them here had never intended for them to survive. The collapse of the white man’s modern system further withered the Anishinaabeg here. But they refused to wither completely…”

Thank you to NetGalley and ECW Press for a copy of Moon of the Crusted Snow in exchange for an honest review.

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I loved this book. It isn't your normal post apocalyptic tale. This is about an Ojibwe tribe who at first doesn't realize they are in a world without power or electricity as theirs goes out so often normally. I loved the use of the Ojibwe language. I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

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The book "Moon of the Crusted Snow" by Waubgeshig Rice is an incredible look at a post-apocalyptic world from a fresh point of view. The characters in this novel are ones you want to get to know better. This book is written in a down-to-earth style that makes the reader believe this could be happening now.

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i read this book in two sittings, which is not what i do, like, ever.

it's a compelling post(-possible)-end-of-the-world (we never learn what happens, which reminded me a little of [book:Station Eleven|20170404]) story set in an indigenous community in northern canada, i.e. freezing coldland. it's paced well and suspenseful and always a bit ominous. the most powerful theme, treaded on intelligently and delicately, is that indigenous folks are not new to apocalypse. so, as the younger people go into understandable freakout, the most elders serenely survive through yet another phase of their history of loss and expropriation.

of course, those among the reserve people who have made a point of learning how to live off the land do well, and those who haven't do less well, but the author makes a point of reminding us that that land is not these people's native land. they were relocated here at gunpoints. and then their children were ripped from them and brought to residential schools.

so, yeah, apocalypse schmapocalypse.

all of this is gently buried in lovely storytelling, with lots of snow and ice and cold and wood cutting and moose hunting and all that roughing it up that is so pleasurable to read about when it's still the height of summer in miami and you are lying on your bed with the a/c cranked up and a tropical storm raging outside.

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A fascinating and thoughtful- as well as unique- take on the post apocalyptic novel. This well written look at how First Nations people deal with the loss of technology and the invasion, once again, of outsiders seeking food etc. was compelling. How much does the loss of cell phone service mean to those who only recently acquired it? What difference would it make if people maintain their traditions and, say, stock food for winter? Evan, who finds himself in the unenviable position of leading his community, is a hero to some and a goat to others but he's always thinking of how best to keep things going. Auntie Eileen's thoughts, well, they'll make you reflect on how we live today. I liked that the precipitating event is kept unclear as the community deals with the crisis. Thanks to the publisher for the ArC.

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