Semiautobiographical and universal in appeal, Street of Riches is about a young girl's growing up in a suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Here is Christine, the perceptive narrator of The Road Past Altamont (also a Bison Book), awakening to natural and sometimes terrifying beauty, to family history, to the nuances of social life, to sexuality, to selfhood. A mother's romantic yearning for freedom, a father's roving career as an immigration officer, a beautiful sister's early demise, a host of other in very human situations—all contribute to the way Christine will view the world as a writer.

""A book of sketches, brief personal essays, reminiscenes, and full stories, all beautifully composed as individual pieces and all coming together, in collective design, as a work of insight, awareness, and illumination. . . . They are a memorable pair, Maman and Papa, deeply seen and beautifully rendered. But indeed all of the persons of this book are rendered with a gentle, exact clarity.""—New York Times|""The stories vary greatly in mood, in purpose, in length, but never in sensitivity. . . . Some are very amusing and most are touched with humor in delicate ways, but the tone of the whole is of sadness, of lost dreams, of adjusting illusions to life. . . . A lovely and appealing book, written with great skill.""—Kirkus|""Miss Roy has applied her special gifts of memory and reflective wit to the French Canadian scene. Once again her sharp observation and way with words create and fix a reality informed by charm and meaning.""—Catholic World

Gabrielle Roy has been called the Canadian Willa Cather because of their affinity in style and theme. Street of Riches won both the Governor-General's Award for Fiction and the French Prix Duvernay.