Split Tooth
Split Tooth
paperback
Published:
3 October, 2023
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Description
Longlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize - Winner of the 2019 Indigenous Voices Award for Published Prose in English
Fact can be as strange as fiction. It can also be as dark, as violent, as rapturous. In the end, there may be no difference between them. An Inuk girl grows up in Nunavut, Canada, in the 1970s. She knows joy, and friendship, and parents' love. She knows boredom, and listlessness, and bullying. She knows the tedium of the everyday world, and the raw, amoral power of the ice and sky, the seductive energy of the animal world. When she becomes pregnant, she must navigate all this. In this acclaimed debut novel – haunting, brooding, exhilarating, and tender all at once – Tanya Tagaq explores the grittiest features of a small Arctic town and the electrifying proximity of the worlds of animals and of myth.
'One of the Best Things I've Ever Read.' Elliot Page
‘Tagaq’s surreal meld of poetry and prose transmutes the Arctic’s boundless beauty, intensity, and desolation into a wrenching contemporary mythology.’ The New Yorker
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781913505806 |
| ISBN10 | 1913505804 |
| Item Weight | 203 g |
| Publisher / Reseller | And Other Stories |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
‘Tagaq’s surreal meld of poetry and prose transmutes the Arctic’s boundless beauty, intensity, and desolation into a wrenching contemporary mythology.’ The New Yorker
‘Though the protagonist’s coming-of-age story, generously and lovingly documented by Tagaq, is the anchor, Split Tooth is not a book that can be fully absorbed in one sitting. It’s possible to sink deeper and deeper into the narrative with each successive reading. Like a smirking teenager, Split Tooth blithely gives typical literary expectations the finger, daring us to see and experience narrative as chaotic, emotional, and deeply instinctive. And it succeeds.’ Quill and Quire
‘A raw, powerful voice breathes fresh air into traditional Inuit folklore to create a modern tale of mythological proportions.’ Kirkus
‘Split Tooth straddles the line between memoir and fiction, prose and poetry, magic and harsh reality. . . and is infused with Tagaq's intimate knowledge of life in the Arctic.’ Oprah Magazine
‘A forceful coming-of-age tale.’ Toronto Life magazine
‘In simplest terms, Split Tooth is a punch to the throat . . . a stellar first novel; an incredible work of Canadian, indigenous, and world literatures.’ PopMatters
‘Tagaq has broken a new trail for all future Inuit writers to tread upon, describing the lived world of an Inuk child with writing that is breathtaking and singular . . . With this work Tagaq has reshaped what Inuit literature is . . . it is impossible to stop reading. It is delicious. And offers a new way forward for Inuit authors.’ Inuit Art Quarterly
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
From Ikaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada), internationally celebrated artist Tanya Tagaq is an improvisational throat singer, avant-garde composer and bestselling author. A member of the Order of Canada, winner of the Polaris Music Prize (a Canadian equivalent to the Mercury Music Prize), Tagaq is an original disruptor, a world-changing figure at the forefront of seismic social, political and environmental change.