This is a novel of resistance—of multiple resistances. 

Characters weave in and out of the stories told by Lendsinda, Simeon, the old woman, and men who were once enslaved. I lost track of these characters’ threads now and then, and the tangle of places and connections took me out of the story a few times. Some stories were also more active than others, so my interest rose and ebbed throughout.

It’s also an important engagement with Canada’s history of enslavement and white supremacy, which is so often overlooked in favour of the universal “free country”. Thomas shows Canada through Black and Indigenous men and women’s eyes, shows realities of harassment, kidnapping, criminalization, and assault of racialized people in Canada; and if not that, of looking the other way, disregarding acts of violence, theft, and exploitation that have been enacted on Black and Indigenous people throughout the history of this land. The stories are singular, unusual and, as Lendsinda herself says, unlikely. They are representative, a metaphorical reality. This novel is spun from answers to a series of “what if” questions that make up a life, a community, a culture, a history.

Fundamentally, In the Upper Country speaks of resilience and survival, honouring the thousands of real, skilled, enslaved, racialized, connected people who have lived in the United States and Canada.

Title: In the Upper Country
Author: Kai Thomas
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: January 10, 2023

T H R E E • W O R D S

Compelling • Intricate • Enlightening

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Young Lensinda Martin is a protegee of a crusading Black journalist in mid-18th century southwestern Ontario, finding a home in a community founded by refugees from the slave-owning states of the American south—whose agents do not always stay on their side of the border.

One night, a neighbouring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman, whose name is Cash, refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before Cash is condemned.

But Cash doesn't want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal the interwoven history of Canada and the United States; of Indigenous peoples from a wide swath of what is called North America and of the Black men and women brought here into slavery and their free descendents on both sides of the border.

As Cash's time runs out, Lensinda realizes she knows far less than she believed not only about the complicated tapestry of her nation, but also of her own family history. And it seems that Cash may carry a secret that could shape Lensinda's destiny.

💭 T H O U G H T S

For the past couple of years I have been doing my own personal Book of the Month project, whereby I select one new release title to prioritize each month. In the Upper Country was my January 2023 selection and while it has taken me a lot longer to get to it than I'd hoped, #Historathon2024 felt like the ideal moment to finally pick it up.

Kai Thomas has delivered a refreshing and profound novel, one detailing the Black and Indigenous relationship along the Canada/U.S. border. It's a story of interwoven histories, of land, of love, of survival and of familial upheaval starring two strong, complex female characters at its center. It's the type of story that expanded my knowledge and made me want to learn more. I greatly appreciated the author's note, which details the author's thought process in putting this narrative together and where he took creative liberties.

While the story is compelling, the structure felt disjointed and confusing at times. There definitely needed to be some way in which to identify change of voice and/or timelines in order to help the reader follow along and grasp the entirety of what this story had to offer. There were times when I didn't know whose perspective I was reading from and it would have been easy enough to include some form of simple indicator.

In the Upper Country is packed with historical detail, offers a fictional account of the interwoven stories that have shaped North America, and introduces a new voice in Canadian historical fiction. Kai Thomas is definitely an author I'd read more from in the future and will be keeping an eye on.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• North American historical fiction
• fresh perspectives
• Canadian literature

⚠️ CW: slavery, racism, racial slurs, torture, brutality, hanging, whipping, murder, violence, gun violence, kidnapping, abandonment, death, grief, child death, animal death, animal cruelty, war, colonization, rape, pregnancy, stillborn

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"For in the absence of sense, fear and violence would reign."