I had the pleasure of attending a West Vancouver Library fundraising event last week where Giller Prize winner Joseph Boyden  was the headline speaker. Joseph has recently completed the third novel of a planned quintet entitled, The Orenda, which was preceeded by two others, Three Day Road, which I am currently reading, and Through Black Spruce which I enjoyed several years ago. All three novels deal with the Aboriginal experience in Canada with his latest, The Orenda, taking us back to the time of first contact in sixteenth century Quebec.

Joseph is an engaging speaker and kept the crowd laughing and clapping along as he introduced each of his three novels with a rousing chorus on his Blues Harmonica. He currently lives in New Orleans, where a little of the local culture has rubbed off on him. He sounded really good and I’d love to jam with him on my tenor sax sometime.

I would recommend these three novels to anyone wanting to gain insight into this historical subject matter.