Desert Hawk Books

 

Kiss of the Fur Queen
A Novel

Tomson Highway

 

 

320  pages
6" x 9"
Hardcover

Quantity:  $29.95 & S/H  

 

"Mush, Tiger-Tiger!" The eight grey huskies were flying through the sky, to God. The trail curved; who knew what surprises lay around the bend, a rabbit, a weasel, five ptarmigans all Holy Ghost white? Behind him stood his father, hand to handlebar, brandishing his moose-hide whip, below him his mother, her back against the kareewalatic, covered by her goose-down sleeping robe from the neck down. What's this? A Face? Yes. In the forest, and part of it, and larger, blotting out the trotting dogs. Gabriel closed his eyes. But when he opened them again, the old man was glaring at him. Why did God look so angry, so embittered, so dreadfully unhappy?"

"In his first novel, Kiss of the Fur Queen, noted playwright Tomson Highway tells the story of two Cree brothers who were severely abused at a Catholic residential school, and he uses the full transformative power of magic and myth, as well as a compelling traditional novel plot, to restore to them their dignity and, by implication, that of their people."-The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"Highway's novel vibrates with the force of the collision of two cultures, the long history of a people living at one with nature, and the violence of their enforced conversion to Christianity. Emotionally complex, witty, symphonic and sad, Kiss of the Fur Queen is a remarkable novel, filled with blood, guts, life and love."-Vancouver Sun

"Highway weaves childhood memories, surreal dreams, wretched reality and slapstick humor into a fascinating. . . fireside yarn."-Montreal Gazette

Tomson Highway, a Cree playwright, holds three honorary degrees and teaches aboriginal mythology at the University of Toronto. Among the plays he has written are The Rez Sisters and Dry-Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing.