Prentice Hall Press

Life is hard in Attawapiskat. Outsiders see the poverty and despair, the sagging, mold-filled houses with generations packed into each one. The substance abuse and the suicides. The decaying water system, that has come to symbolize the everyday injustice faced by First Nations communities. So why does Juno-nominated Cree musician Adrian Sutherland live there? The Work of Our Hands reveals a dimension of his own experience that headlines cannot capture and outsiders cannot see. The answer to why? is the answer to how? By exploring his world through the concrete experience of his hands, as they hold a guitar, a hammer, a rifle, or a cannister used to carry water to his family home, and the materials from which the traditional Cree sweat lodge is constructed, Sutherland not only paints a portrait of a world few of us have ever seen, he also lays out the way the world itself can teach us right and wrong as clearly as we can detect a musical note that is off-key. Everyday life in Attawapiskat means choosing a difficult path, learning from the contours and hard edges of the world, and striving to do what is right. That is freedom. How many of us can say we are free? Gritty, personal, and above all attuned to the meaning that we can discern only when we carefully hold the physical world in our hands, Sutherland''s story pulls us away from the abstractions and false promises of the disembodied reality we have stumbled into to approach deeper truth and meaning.

On opposite sides of the pond, Sonia Butt, an adventurous young British woman, and Guy d''Artois, a French-Canadian soldier and thunderstorm of a man, are preparing to go to war. From different worlds, they make their way to fight in Winston Churchill''s secret army against the German forces and, unlike most involved in the world''s deadliest conflict to date, to fight from behind enemy lines. Their lives first intersect during clandestine training to become agents with the Special Operations Executive. Sonia and Guy learn how to parachute into enemy territory, how to kill, blow up rail lines, support the French resistance, and eventually... how to love each other. But not long after their hasty marriage, their love is tested by separation, by a titanic invasion - and by indiscretion. Written in vivid, heart stopping prose, we follow their stories of uncommon courage - as Sonia plunges into Nazi-occupied France and slinks into black market restaurants to throw off German forces who knew she''d arrived, while at the same time participating in sabotage operations against them by night; and as Guy, in another corner of France, trains hundreds into a resistance army, fashioning himself a military leader, weapons instructor, and peacemaker all at once. Reconstructed from hours of unpublished interviews and hundreds of archival and personal documents, Ayed tells a story of sacrifice and youthful folly; a story about the ravaging costs of war paid for disproportionately by the young. But more than anything, The War We Won Apart is a story about love: two secret agents who were supposed to land in enemy territory together, but were fated to fight the war apart.

A successful Black woman in media, Bee Quammie often finds herself being cast as a role model for young women - and especially Black women and other women of colour. But Bee has never quite been comfortable with the idea of being a role model for the next generation. Who is she to suggest anyone live the way she has? Follow a certain path? Who says the path she followed is the ''right'' one - that there even is a ''right'' one? When Bee became a mother, the weight of responsibility became even heavier, and she spent hours agonizing over how she could be the guide her girls needed without getting in their way or imposing her agenda. That''s when Bee decided she needed a new model for understanding the role she should play for her children - and anyone else who might be looking to her for inspiration. Instead of a role model, Bee prefers to think of herself as a possibility model - one example among many of how to live one''s life. But even more important, Bee wants to show her daughters and other women how ripe with possibility their lives really are, how many opportunities and avenues there are to explore. There is so much richness to be found in life, even if you end up somewhere that feels unconventional or unplanned. In The Book of Possibilities, Bee shows us how small acts of bravery and paying careful attention to our inner voice can open up a world of opportunity and lead to a fulfilling life.