What novelists Madeleine Thien and Joshua Whitehead hope to read this summer

The Next Chapter has been asking writers what books they plan to sink into this summer. Madeleine Thien —  the writer behind the novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing and winner of the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction — answers the question along with Oji-Cree poet Joshua Whitehead, author of the novel Jonny Appleseed.

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Madeleine's selections

Madeleine says: "This summer I'm really looking forward to reading a number of books, one of which is This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga. She's a writer from Zimbabwe and this is the final book in a trilogy. I'm also really looking forward to reading David Chariandy's nonfiction book I've Been Meaning to Tell You and Kim Fu's The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore."

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Joshua's selection

Joshua says: "The book I'm most looking forward to reading this summer is Strangers by David A. Robertson. It's a YA Indigenous novel that features a protagonist, Cole Harper, as he returns to Wounded Sky First Nation. I first heard heard David A. Robertson talk about this at the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). Based on the reading he did, it sounded like an amazing novel and much-needed voice that we need to hear right now in Indigenous literatures."

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Madeleine Thien and Joshua Whitehead's comments have been edited and condensed.