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."

 “Names mean so little to me,” she said.
“Come now!” I chided. “A lover such as that must have had a name you whispered in the dark.”
I was poking fun at her, but she did not pick up the jest.
“Names can be bought,” she said somberly, “and changed. Stolen too, mind you. Which is perhaps why you ask—perhaps why you still do not believe, yes? I am that woman in Chiron’s text. How did he say? A Negro woman, and free?”
She paused to smile at me, and then her eyes drifted around ​the prison walls, and she snorted as if to laugh at the irony that the passage of time had imbued in those words.
“But you ask of a real name,” she went on. “His was a changed name already, true. And we took new names in that village. Long names, full of meaning. But when I met him, his name was John. And that, simple and empty as it was, was always good enough. He filled it with his spirit.”

I can't figure out why this wasn't hooking me. 

It had so many great elements: Canadian, strong female lead, historical interest, great descriptions, great voice actor for audiobook; but I just could not connect. While reading about slavery is never fun I was fully leaning into the discomfort, so it wasn't the subject matter.

Maybe the point of view? I found the inner thoughts a bit repetitive and too extraneous at times, maybe I would have hung on longer for a 3rd person narration to help cut down on that... 

I honestly don't know. I'll be picking up other works by this author in future though!