A Grandmother Begins the Story was an excellent read. I loved the character development and the writing was propulsive.

Got a physical copy of this book - explore the family of 5 generations and the story telling is so inviting that you just fall into the book. I very much enjoyed this book.

A Grandmother Begins the Story follows a family of five women, whose tale is full of abuse, loss, grief, resilience and identity. This is a beautifully written story and with each character you will find yourself connecting to them in some way. It's a character driven story that's thought provoking! This is my first book by Michelle Porter but it won't be my last! Thank you Algonquin Books and Michelle Porter for sharing this book with me!

There are stories that you enjoy on first reading and then there are stories that you fall in love with on second meeting. For me, #AGrandmotherBeginsTheStory is like that. With a blended reading experience I was able to fall into the story the way Grandmother intended.

#MichellePorter pays homage to oral traditions that carry the pain and the history of each of her characters, even the inanimate ones (the car got a pov?!). By the end of the novel you're left knowing and loving them, aching for them to heal and rejoicing at their triumphs.

I'll definitely check this author out again,and I can even see myself rereading this yet again some time in the future.

All I know to say is we’ve got to play our music no matter who leaves us and no matter who fails us, no matter the memories prey on us in the small hours of the night. from A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter

A chorus of voices merge together to tell the story of five generations of First Person and Metis women. Even the prairie grasslands and the bison and the pet dogs and an old car have voices, each with their unique perspective.

The jumping from chapter to chapter of first person narratives made it too easy to set this book down. It lost the propulsion that gets me turning pages. But when I got to the end of the story I had an emotional reaction of heartache and hope.

Mame begins the story with her wandering journey in the afterlife. Her daughter Lucie seeks to end her life. She is estranged from her daughter Allie, but contacts her granddaughter Carter to ask for her help.

Carter was adopted. Her mother Allie “lives like she beads, as if the tighter she tacked those beads down the longer she’d keep away the bad things, the mess, anything that wasn’t good.” Until she met her birth mother, she had not known that she was Metis, her mother First People and father white. Carter is separated from a white man and has a son, Tucker.

So my grandmother–my grandmother who I never met, by the way, because my birth mom refused to get us together, saying her mother is a piece of work–called me up to ask if I’d help her kill herself. Carter in A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter

Mame’s daughter Genevieve at eighty-one decides to address her alcoholism, leaving her dogs at a shelter and driving Bes to the rehab center. In detox, she sees her deceased sister Velma, who died long ago. Genevieve was a pianist and Velma played the fiddle, their musical gifts inherited from their father. The sisters discuss their messy lives, “Just a typical Metis story”.

Each generation of women are estranged from children who were hurt by their mother’s problems and issues. They married wrong, their husbands separating them from their heritage and people. Their mistakes haunt them.

Paralleling the human story is Dee, a bison who falls in love with Jay, and pursues him, even abandoning their calf Tell in her search. Dee’s mother had broke out of the preserve for the open prairie, and so has Jay. But freedom comes at a cost.In the end, the story offers closure and healing.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

I am in the minority with my review, but I struggled with this one. There seemed to be a lot going on and I struggled with it and the different story lines.

Loved the vignette style of telling so many stories of multiple Indigenous family members over generations. Beautifully written and relatable characters. One of the best books of the year.

I struggled with this one. There were so many characters in the story, and I could not keep track of them; I felt lost. The way the story jumps between all the characters makes staying focused difficult.

This book is HEAVY, but beautiful. It's written in prose so most "chapters" are only a page or two. Most of the chapters switch between different POVs. I think if you like On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, you will like this book.

The Grandmother Begins the Story is really about generational trauma and the lasting effects of colonialism on this family. We follow the threads of the different women through five generations and there is a concurrent/b plot story from the viewpoint of bison. I thought this was such an interesting story and really conveyed the joy and also soul crushing experiences these women went through.

Ultimately, I love the perseverance of this family and the women. There were themes of overcoming addiction and living for your family. The only reason this wasn't a 5-star read for me was I felt that there could have been more connection between the spirit world, our world, and the bison. I felt like the thread was there, but it could have used a little more oomph.

Regardless, I loved this book. It was thought provoking and beautiful.

Thank you Algonquin Publishing for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

This book was such an interesting premise. The story follows various Metis women who are all interconnected in some way. Perhaps it was the story itself, or the multiple viewpoints, but I did find myself getting a little confused between the individuals at first. However, I straightened it out and definitely enjoyed the story from the standpoint of individuals very different from myself. Compelling writing not only through the eyes of humans and spirits in the afterlife but also various animals in the world of the characters. Very interesting book, and I would recommend this if you enjoy magical realism!

This ebook was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Grandmother Begins the Story is a rich multigenerational novel that explores the lives and heritage of a Métis family. This unusual and almost weird novel is told by a chorus of funny, wise, confused, and struggling characters, including five generations of women in an indigenous Canadian family. Even bison, grasslands, dogs, and a car chime in to tell their stories.

The characters include Mamé, who’s having trouble settling in the afterlife; her daughter Geneviève, who checks into rehab at age 81 after decades of alcoholism; Gen’s daughter Lucie, who is dying of cancer; and Carter, Geneviève’s great-granddaughter, who’s just discovering her Métis heritage after escaping an abusive adoptive mother. Their stories, past and present, overlap in an intergenerational sweep of families fractured by racism, poverty, misogyny, and substance abuse.

While the novel’s elements of magical realism sometimes work, they often do not. The brief chapters make the story seem choppy, and some readers might find the frequent shifts between time periods and characters challenging to follow. Personally, I couldn’t keep the characters straight and was uncomfortable with some of the language.

Michelle Porter’s debut novel is a thoughtful exploration of identity, heritage, and family, painting a vivid picture of Métis culture and history. However, the ensemble audio cast didn’t sound professional, and the many storylines felt too scattered. I wanted to like it more but found it lacking. 3 stars.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. The opinions are my own.

A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter. Pub Date: November 7, 2023. Rating: 2 stars. When I requested this novel, I was very interested in learning about the culture of the Metis. What I got instead was a jumbled story with multiple characters that did not seem to blend well together in their storytelling. I thought this novel had too many characters to keep straight and it was hard to follow because of this. I can appreciate the author's ability to try to paint a broader picture of storytelling, but I thought the execution was lacking. Thanks to #algonquinbooks and #netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This series of vignettes will pull at your heartstrings. Five generations of Metis women with the stories of what they endured and had to overcome told from many different points of view.

4.5⭐️

A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter is an evocative novel that will stay with you long after you have finished reading. A multigenerational family saga that follows five Métis women, whose distinct voices tell a poignant tale of generational trauma, neglect, abuse, loss, grief, broken relationships, resilience, identity and legacy. Interspersed throughout the narrative are the perspectives of canine friends and the story of a bison calf and her offspring both of which enrich the narrative, emphasizing the deep connection between all living beings and the world we inhabit.

Carter, a recently separated mother of one is struggling to pick up the pieces when she hears from her maternal grandmother Lucie, whom she never met. Lucie requests her assistance to pass on to the Afterlife. Given up for adoption by her biological mother Allie with whom she has recently reconnected Carter has a strained relationship with her adoptive mother and is intrigued by her grandmother’s request. We also meet the aging and unwell Genevieve, haunted by her memories and unable to let go of her deceased sibling in whose presence and influence she finds the strength to rebuild her life after a lifetime of loss and addiction. Mamé, observes all of her descendants from the Afterlife and strives to move on from her connections to the living world but knows that she also has a part to play to enable all these women to move on from the trauma they have individually endured and all that is holding them back from a brighter future.

“It’s not about me, not anymore. It’s not like that. Up here the stories are us and we are the stories, every single one of them. Took me a long time to make my way here and now it’s almost my turn to be the stories—or to tell the stories, as we used to say before we passed.”

Beautifully written with a blend of lore and magical realism, this is an immersive albeit slower-paced novel. Initially, the narrative might seem a tad disjointed but the author deftly weaves the multiple threads of this story into a coherent narrative. Please note that this is an emotionally heavy read touching upon several sensitive topics including the death of a loved one, abuse, addiction and domestic violence, among others.

Overall, I found this novel to be a compelling read that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to those who would be interested in character-driven indigenous fiction. This was my first time reading Michelle Porter but it surely won't be my last.

Finally, that cover art deserves all the stars!

“But regret is worth nothing because you can’t be walking all the paths or you wouldn’t be walking any path at all."

Many thanks to Algonquin Books for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the full cast! The multi-generational story is fascinating - I appreciate the ways that one generation can affect another by passing along trauma or helping to heal. The bison were a bit too anthropomorphized for me - they had so many human motivations and feelings that seemed unbelievable for me.

In A Grandmother Begins the Story, we hear from the POV's of 5 generations of Métis women and bison. It is about overcoming generational trauma passed down through the generations from mother to daughter, and the power of family ties. The pages are filled with heartache and betrayal, addiction, and loss. But there is also hope, love, joy, and the peace that comes from letting go. There is so much healing contained within these pages. Named CBC best Canadian fiction for 2023!

Content Warnings: alcoholism, grief, mention of cancer, sexual assault, depression, discussion of assisted suicide, mention of death, grief, mention of miscarriages, child abuse, suicide attempt, substance use, domestic violence, mention of murder, brief mention of residential school

A Grandmother starts the story is an Indigenous multigeneration family saga. Told in many different points of views, we get to see the bonds of five generations of Metis women, and what they faced, and overcame. This is a story of complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends. It was heavy, heartfelt, character-driven and beautiful.

This is a beautiful, poignant book, and I can't wait to get my own copy of it to re-read again and again.

A bit of a challenging read for me given the multiple POVs and not sure always what was going on. I don’t think I’m the intended audience which I’m okay with! And enjoyed the ride nevertheless. If you are ok with diff structured books, the payout in the ending is worth it.

I started off not loving this and was confused by the many characters. But once I got theyhang of it I ended up loving this book.