WHERE WOLVES DON'T DIE

A fire changes a 15-year-old boy’s life in this fiction debut by noted Ojibwe scholar and author Treuer.

Ezra Cloud, a member of the Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation in Canada, lives in Minneapolis with his professor father, Byron. When the home of bully Matt Schroeder—“just the kind of colonizer who would’ve been a perfect fit in the US 7th Cavalry in 1890, trying to kill innocent Lakota children with a Hotchkiss gun”—mysteriously burns down the night after a public altercation between Matt and Ezra, the police want to question Matt’s classmates. Byron arranges for his son to give his statement over Zoom and takes him back to the rez, where Ezra is thrilled to learn he’ll be working the trapline for the winter with Grandpa Liam. Ezra’s a strong student who must still do his homework and check in with teachers when he has internet access, but otherwise he’ll be focusing on wilderness knowledge. Alongside issues such as racism, Ezra’s first-person perspective thoughtfully explores grief: His mother passed recently, and he’s angry and has a rocky relationship with Byron. The novel positively portrays Indigenous characters through characterization that embraces and affirms the parallel paths of traditional ways and formal schooling. Byron is a caring father who wants to be involved in his son’s life during a trying time. The Cloud family are wolf clan, something referenced in Pawis-Steckley’s striking Anishinaabe woodland art–style digital spot illustrations.

A nuanced adventure centering family and growth.