Book
Empty spaces / Jordan Abel.
Re-imagining James Fenimore Coopers 19th-century text 'The Last of the Mohicans' from the contemporary perspective of an urban Nisgaa person whose relationship to land and traditional knowledge was severed by colonial violence, Jordan Abel's 'Empty Spaces' explores what it means to be Indigenous without access to familial territory and complicates popular understandings about Indigenous storytelling. Abel is a queer Nisgaa writer from Vancouver, BC.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780771002014 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 216 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
- Edition: Hardcover edition.
- Publisher: Toronto, ON : McClelland & Stewart, 2023.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Ethnicity > Fiction. Identity (Psychology) > Fiction. Indigenous peoples > Fiction. Nature > Fiction. |
| Genre: | Psychological fiction. Novels. |
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | FIC Abel | 31681010337400 | FICTION | Available | - |
- Random House, Inc.
Shortlisted for the 2024 Amazon First Novel Award
From the acclaimed, boundary-breaking author of NISHGA comes a hypnotic and mystifying exploration of land and legacy.
Reimagining James Fenimore Cooperâs nineteenth-century text The Last of the Mohicans from the contemporary perspective of an urban Nisgaâa person whose relationship to land and traditional knowledge was severed by colonial violence, Jordan Abel explores what it means to be Indigenous without access to familial territory and complicates popular understandings about Indigenous storytelling. Engaging the land through fiction and metaphor, the successive chapters of Empty Spaces move toward an eerie, looping, and atmospheric rendering of place that evolves despite the violent and reckless histories of North America. The result is a bold and profound new vision of history that decenters human perception and forgoes Westernized ways of seeing.
Jordan Abelâs extraordinary debut work of fiction grows out of his groundbreaking visual compositions in NISHGA, which integrated descriptions of the landscape from Cooperâs settler classic into his father's traditional Nisga'a artwork. In Empty Spaces, Abel reinscribes those words on the page itself, subjecting them to bold rewritings and inviting us to come to a crucial understanding: that the land knows everything that can and will happen, even as our world lurches toward uncertainty.
