Richard Wagamese's final novel, Starlight, to be released in August 2018
Richard Wagamese's final novel, Starlight, will be published posthumously on Aug. 14, 2018. Wagamese, who died in March 2017, is acclaimed for his body of literature, which explores the Indigenous experience in Canada, particularly the impact of the residential school system. His books include the novels Indian Horse and Medicine Walk, the memoir For Joshua and the poetry book Runaway Dreams.
Publisher McClelland & Stewart says the novel is unfinished, but will include a "Note on the Text" that describes what the author planned for the ending and includes a scene he worked on for the finale of Starlight.
"When Richard Wagamese died in March 2017, we lost one of our great writers," said McClelland & Stewart senior editor Anita Chong in a press release.
"While it is tragic that Richard did not have the chance to complete what was clearly his masterpiece, what he accomplished in the pages of Starlight is deserving of celebration."
Set in 1980 in the B.C. interior, the novel is about an Indigenous farmer named Frank Starlight whose quiet life is dramatically changed by the frantic arrival of a woman named Emmy and her young child. Emmy and her child have escaped an abusive home and end up forming a bond with Frank.
The novel will also include an essay by the Ojibway author called Finding Father, which was shortlisted for the 2015 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
"I am constantly changing my writing. I am always challenging myself, to be better, to be different, to find a new and evocative voice with which to tell my story, to grow more fluid, to ask deeper and more resonant questions," Wagamese told CBC Books in 2016. "I want the next book to always be a step beyond the last one. It's what I owe my readers."