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*WINNER OF THE 2023 WRITER'S TRUST ATWOOD GIBSON PRIZE*
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOVERNER GENERAL'S AWARD FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 HURSTON/WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD IN DEBUT FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 WALTER SCOTT HISTORICAL FICTION AWARD
The fates of two unforgettable women—one just beginning a journey of reckoning and self-discovery and the other completing her life's last vital act—intertwine in this sweeping, deeply researched debut set in the Black communities of Ontario that were the last stop on the Underground Railroad.
Young Lensinda Martin is a protegee of a crusading Black journalist in mid-18th century southwestern Ontario, finding a home in a community founded by refugees from the slave-owning states of the American south—whose agents do not always stay on their side of the border.
One night, a neighbouring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman, whose name is Cash, refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before Cash is condemned.
But Cash doesn't want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal the interwoven history of Canada and the United States; of Indigenous peoples from a wide swath of what is called North America and of the Black men and women brought here into slavery and their free descendents on both sides of the border.
As Cash's time runs out, Lensinda realizes she knows far less than she believed not only about the complicated tapestry of her nation, but also of her own family history. And it seems that Cash may carry a secret that could shape Lensinda's destiny.
Sweeping along the path of the Underground Railroad from the southern States to Canada, through the lands of Indigenous nations around the Great Lakes, to the Black communities of southern Ontario, In the Upper Country weaves together unlikely stories of love, survival, and familial upheaval that map the interconnected history of the peoples of North America in an entirely new and resonant way.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 10, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593629017
- File size: 281746 KB
- Duration: 09:46:58
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from October 24, 2022
Thomas’s mesmerizing debut explores freedom, family, and the interconnections between white, Black, and Indigenous communities in 1859 Canada. Lensinda Martin, a reporter for the Coloured Canadian newspaper, lives in the Black village of Dunmore, a stop on the Underground Railroad. One day, American bounty hunter Pelham Beall arrives in pursuit of six Kentucky fugitives from slavery who are staying with a farmer named Simeon. After one of them, an elderly woman named Cash, fatally shoots Beall, Simeon asks Lensinda to visit Cash in jail to ensure her explanation is recorded and shared. Cash proposes a bargain with Lensinda: she will tell the story of her life if Lensinda does the same. Though Lensinda, a self-professed “woman of little patience,” is initially irked by the agreement, she’s soon swept up in their exchange and the surprising links between their lives. Thomas amplifies the women’s stories with excerpts from a collection of enslaved people’s narratives obtained by Lensinda, while stories of Cash’s Indigenous husband, John; Black Canadians during the War of 1812; and the American enslaved people who settled Dunmore add to the vivid tapestry. At once intimate and majestic, Thomas’s ambitious work heralds a bright new voice. -
June 10, 2024
Thomas's outstanding debut transports listeners to the 1850s fictional town of Dunmore, located in southern Ontario, Canada, at the terminus of the Underground Railroad. Citing the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Act, a white bounty hunter arrives in the mostly Black town in pursuit of individuals fleeing enslavement. He is shot by Cash, one of the women he was pursuing; she chooses jail over more running, and while there, she meets Lensinda Martin, a well-educated Black journalist and healer who lives nearby. The women begin to exchange stories, and soon it is revealed that Cash is Lensinda's grandmother, a free Black woman who was abducted and forcibly enslaved. The stories that the women share speak to the complex history of African Canadian and Indigenous Canadian populations in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Thomas creates a powerful story with carefully crafted lyrical prose. Narrators Milton Barnes, Tymika Tafari, and Wesley French provide evocative and sensitive performances. Tafari's voicing of both Lensinda and Cash is particularly noteworthy and piercingly beautiful, bringing depth to this already compelling story. VERDICT A vivid, engrossing tale for those interested in history and the narratives of enslaved people. Highly recommended.--Joanna M. Burkhardt
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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