Probably Ruby

A Novel

De: Lisa Bird-Wilson

Narrado por: Dakota Ray Hebert

For fans of Tommy Orange's There There and Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries, Probably Ruby is an audacious, brave, and beautiful book about an adopted woman's search for her Indigenous identity.

Relinquished as an infant, Ruby is placed in a foster home and finally adopted by Alice and Mel, a less-than-desirable couple who can't afford to complain too loudly about Ruby's Indigenous roots. But when her new parents' marriage falls apart, Ruby finds herself vulnerable and in compromising situations that lead her to search, in the unlikeliest of places, for her Indigenous identity.

Unabashedly self-destructing on alcohol, drugs, and bad relationships, Ruby grapples with the meaning of the legacy left to her. In a series of expanding narratives, Ruby and the people connected to her tell their stories and help flesh out Ruby's history. Seeking understanding of how we come to know who we are, Probably Ruby explores how we find and invent ourselves in ways as peculiar and varied as the experiences of Indigenous adoptees themselves. Ruby's voice, her devastating honesty, and her tremendous laugh will not soon be forgotten.

Probably Ruby is a perfectly crafted novel, with effortless, nearly imperceptible shifts in time and perspective, exquisitely chosen detail, natural dialogue, and emotional control that results in breathtaking levels of tension and points of revelation.

©2021 Lisa Bird-Wilson (P)2021 Doubleday Canada

Reseñas de la Crítica

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD
SHORTLISTED FOR THREE 2022 SASKATCHEWAN BOOK AWARDS

A CBC Best Canadian Fiction Book of 2021

"In Probably Ruby, Lisa Bird-Wilson explores the deep vulnerability inherent in having no sense of one’s place in the world and particularly the Indigenous world. Bird-Wilson effectively captures the sadness, anger, loneliness and alienation that Indigenous children lost to the child-welfare system are plagued by as they search for a sense of meaning and identity. In turns raw, tender, funny, despairing and hopeful, Probably Ruby tells a story that needs hearing." —Michelle Good, author of Five Little Indians

"Probably Ruby is a work of incredible depth and breadth. . . . The novel unfolds in a non-linear narrative that Bird-Wilson masterfully weaves together with elegiac prose. It is populated with revelatory passages that are at once beautiful and raw, and demand for you to sit with them a little while. . . poetic gut punches. . . . It's a difficult novel that challenges readers to make connections between the world that Bird-Wilson has created in the book and the country that we live in today, allowing us to see the world through the eyes of another: their struggles and their resiliencies. Her writing is never didactic, always engrossing, and the protagonist is a complex, unforgettable character who will stay with you long after the last page has been turned. Probably Ruby is a timely and important novel every Canadian should read." —Toronto Star

"An authentic portrait of transracial adoption. . . . Bird-Wilson's debut is a much-needed shift in the adoption narrative, long dominated by the experiences of adoptive parents. . . . In a time when truth is coveted, Probably Ruby is a refreshing reminder of the realities of forced Indigenous adoption and family separation. Bird-Wilson's writing is at times poetic and ever compelling. We are fortunate to have her and Ruby among us." —The Washington Post