The Alberta Reads Provincial Book Club just announced Humane by Anna Marie Sewell, published by Stonehouse Publishing, as their selection for July/August 2021! 

The Alberta Reads Book Club is an online, province-wide book club run by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta (BPAA) that profiles the rich culture of books that are published right here in Alberta. We can’t wait to dig into this Indigenous crime novel that follows a Métis mother of two working as an unlicensed Private Investigator. Care to join us?

Here’s how:

1. Read the book description below and then head to your local library or bookstore to borrow/buy a copy.
2. Follow the Book Publishers Association of Alberta on Facebook and Twitter as they post discussion questions each week. Join the ongoing discussion by following #ABReads and #ABBooks.
3. Learn all about Stonehouse Publishing in their recent Read Alberta profile.
4. Stay tuned to our channels for an exclusive interview with Anna Marie Sewell.

About the Book

Who steals a dog from a shelter after receiving a dream message from their grandmother? Hazel Lesage never expected it to be her. Then again, she didn’t plan on becoming an unlicensed PI, helping the ‘throwaway people.’ However much has changed in Amiskwaciy, the problem of poor Indigenous women and girls being expendable hasn’t. Nobody else is going to help the Augusts find out who killed their daughter Nell; so Hazel takes the case. And then she takes the dog.

What follows will force Hazel and her family to confront the question of what it means to be Human, and what it matters to be Humane.

Anna Marie Sewell is an award-winning multi-genre writer/performer, whose career has centred  around collaborative multidisciplinary work, including Ancestors & Elders, Reconciling Edmonton (which featured the first ever Round Dance at Edmonton’s City Hall), Braidings, Honour Songs and Heart of the Flower. As Edmonton’s 4th Poet Laureate, Anna Marie created and curated The PoemCatcher public art installation. She founded and ran Big Sky Theatre, a three year training and performance project producing original Aboriginal (it was the 90s) theatre with urban youth. She is also a founding member of the Stroll of Poets, which has provided an entrée into Edmonton’s public poetry community since 1991.