In the Upper Country

A Novel

By: Kai Thomas

Narrated by: Milton Barnes, Tymika Tafari, Wesley French

Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*

*WINNER OF THE 2023 WRITERS' TRUST ATWOOD GIBSON PRIZE*

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOVERNER GENERAL'S AWARD FOR FICTION

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AMAZON CANADA FIRST NOVEL AWARD

SHORTLISTED FOR THE KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE

LONGLISTED 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 protégée 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 neighboring 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 descendants 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.

©2023 Penguin Audio (P)2023 Kai Thomas

Critic reviews

"Kai Thomas' In the Upper Country is a sweeping epic that imagines all the ways our ancestors tried to get free. This is an exciting new voice in fiction, as interested in the complexities of land and belonging as in the vagaries of human love and connection."—Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of Libertie

"Stories within stories; until I read them, I hadn't realised these are ones I'd long been wanting, needing even. In this remarkable debut, Kai Thomas fills out the picture of a place, a time, peoples and their relationships, all previously neglected in the day-to-day unfolding of the nations. His immensely compelling details, and a host of voices so well-wrought you can see and hear the speakers long after you've finished reading, will leave you eager to see what he'll do next."—Shani Mootoo, author of Polar Vortex

"In the Upper Country is not only fiction alive with history; it is historic… In the Upper Country reminds me—yes—of Lawrence Hill’s Book of Negroes and Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson Before Dying. And practically every page turns up a sentence or a phrase that could have been penned by Toni Morrison or James Baldwin… a gift of lyric genius to enthrall all—and to educate Afro-Métis people about the love and courage that enabled their creation."—George Elliott Clarke, Author of Where Beauty Survived: An Africadian Memoir

Very entertaining.

A performance good enough for one to picture. I am looking forward to reading it again.

good story

unique story line in compelling and dramatic historical novel based on real places with wonderful characters showing the complex intertwining of the African and indigenous experiences in colonial Canada. excellent historical novel. read by talented actors
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Stunning description of the slave experience

The reach of the greed that drives man’s inhumanity to man is stunningly depicted in this book. Canada, the destination of the US Underground Railroad, was as culpable as American white man in its treatment of both blacks and indigenous peoples.
Within the context of the horror, Thomas brilliantly depicts the resilience and resourcefulness of people of color who have the reverence for the land and freedom that is so sorely lacking in white cultures.
Great job of all of the narrators in all aspects of the read. I’m glad I chose to listen to this book rather than to read it; truly an immersive experience.