All True Not a Lie in It
CBC Books | | Posted: March 10, 2017 5:09 PM | Last Updated: November 26, 2018
Alix Hawley
All True, Not a Lie in It is a fictionalized biography of legendary folk hero Daniel Boone. The book follows Boone from his life as a young Quaker living in Pennsylvania through to his exploration the American wilderness and subsequent capture by the Shawnee.
- Alix Hawley: How I wrote All True Not a Lie in It
- How Alix Hawley wrote the story that won the CBC Short Story Prize
Alix Hawley won of 2017 CBC Short Story Prize.
From the book
How you scalp someone is like this. Cut a small round down to the bone beneath the hair on top of the head, near the front. Put your foot on the back of the person to be scalped, pull the hair at the edge of the hole. The whole skin comes free easy enough, easier than skinning a deer.
Jamesie my son you once asked me how and I refused to say at that time but I do not see why I should keep it from you any longer, now you are dead. If you are listening. But perhaps you cannot hear me, perhaps you do not wish to.
In the bad times in the Yadkin Valley, we found two children with scabbed patches of bone on the tops of their heads, left to sicken or starve after their parents and houses were burned and their hair was taken. Some can survive it. I saw a man done at the Monongahela River. He did not survive I believe, but I do not know.
Some other children were taken captive. I do not forget that. So many people shifting about, bought and sold and traded, this country is full of their tracks.
From All True Not a Lie in It by Alix Hawley ©2015. Published by Penguin Random House Canada.