From the Ashes

An exceptionally moving memoir voiced with great steadiness by its author, this audiobook is brimming with details of a life that truly does seem to rise from the ashes. A M�tis-Cree man who, for various harrowing reasons, was abandoned by his parents as a child, Thistle tells the entirely engrossing story of his life from a young age to the present day. From his fraught and sometimes abusive familial relationships, his struggle to understand himself within a racist and colonialist society, his deep descent into substance abuse and many, many brushes with death, his titular rise finds him later in life an Indigenous scholar and mentor with strong family and community ties. Thistle is a deft narrator, and, though his pacing sometimes falters, his voice is essential to the story being told. This is a visceral, vital story that shines in its audiobook version. S.N. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine