In the Upper Country

Books

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER* *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 KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 HURSTON/WRIGHT LEGACY AWARD IN DEBUT FICTION 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 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 ...