A National Bestseller
A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year
A CBC Best Book of the Year
An Apple Best Book of the Year
A Kobo Best Book of the Year
An Indigo Best Book of the Year
A Canada Reads 2022 Winner
A Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction Winner
An Amazon First Novel Award-Winning Author
A Kobo Emerging Author Prize-Winning Author
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie, and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support, or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn't want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.