Medicine Walk - by Richard Wagamese (Paperback)

About the Book

Franklin Starlight's comfort in solitude and experience in the wilderness make him appear wise beyond his sixteen years. But when his ailing father, Eldon, summons him back to town, Franklin's sense of duty clashes with the deep resentment he feels for his father's many years of absence and neglect. Finding Eldon near death after years of drinking, Franklin grudgingly agrees to help carry out his father's final wish to be buried in the warrior way, deep in the rugged and starkly beautiful outback of British Columbia. The ride into the wilderness transforms both men as Eldon shares his life story. From an impoverished childhood to his shell-shocked return from combat in the Korean War, Eldon depicts a hard life, a life common to many of his people. But along with these desolate recollections, Eldon shares his life's fleeting moments of happiness and hope. And in telling his story, he offers his son an inheritance he never could have imagined.

Book Synopsis

"A novel about the role of stories in our lives, those we tell ourselves about ourselves and those we agree to live by." --Globe and Mail

When Franklin Starlight is called to visit his father, he has mixed emotions. Raised by the old man he was entrusted to soon after his birth, Frank is haunted by the brief and troubling moments he has shared with his father, Eldon. When he finally travels by horseback to town, he finds Eldon on the edge of death, decimated from years of drinking.

The two undertake a difficult journey into the mountainous backcountry, in search of a place for Eldon to die and be buried in the warrior way. As they travel, Eldon tells his son the story of his own life--from an impoverished childhood to combat in the Korean War and his shell-shocked return. Through the fog of pain, Eldon relates to his son these desolate moments, as well as his life's fleeting but nonetheless crucial moments of happiness and hope, the sacrifices made in the name of love. And in telling his story, Eldon offers his son a world the boy has never seen, a history he has never known.

About the Author

Richard Wagamese is one of Canada's foremost writers, and one of the leading Native writers in North America. The author of eight previous novels and several acclaimed memoirs, he has won numerous awards, including the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications, the Molson Prize, and the Canada Reads People's Choice Award. He lives in Kamloops, British Columbia.