THE BACK OF THE TURTLE

Thomas King's first literary novel in thirteen years - a mischievous tour de force about destruction, salvation, and the relentless resilience of life.

When Gabriel Quinn, a corporate scientist, returns to the Smoke River Indian Reserve where his mother lived, he finds that pretty much everyone in the community has disappeared. Even the sea turtles are gone, poisoned by an environmental disaster known as The Ruin. The only signs of life he finds are a stray dog named Soldier; an enigmatic, bossy woman named Mara; a kid named Sonny who, with his absentee Dad, runs a dilapidated motel; and Dad's brother, a rascally old soul named Nicholas Crisp. The fact is, Gabriel was the chief architect of the disaster, and he has returned to Smoke River first to witness the damage he has created, and then to drown himself in Samaritan Bay. But as he prepares to let the water take him, he sees a young girl in the waves. Plunging in, he saves her, and soon is saving others. Who are these people with their long black hair and almond eyes who have fallen from the sky? The Back of the Turtle draws on Christian and Native mythology and on Thomas King's own unmistakable instinct for mischief to give us a cockeyed Garden of Eden for our times. Showcasing King's brilliant wit and trademark wordplay, this is a funny, smart, sometimes confounding, and altogether unforgettable tale of betrayal, salvation, and the relentless resilience of life. THOMAS KING is the bestselling, award-winning author of several books including Medicine River, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize; Green Grass, Running Water, which was called a "first class work of art" by Newsweek and compared to the work of Mark Twain; and Truth and Bright Water, which earned starred reviews in Publishers Weekly ("extraordinarily moving") and Kirkus Reviews ("masterful"). His most recent book is the number one Canadian bestseller The Inconvenient Indian, which won the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize, the BC National Book Award and the 2013 Libris Award. Thomas King has been awarded the 2022 Pierre Berton Award, celebrating those who have brought Canadian history to a wider audience.