Beststelling author Kai Thomas visits for One Book, One Niagara

Readers from across Niagara came together at Welland Centennial Secondary School Tuesday, to hear Ottawa-born Afro-Canadian author Kai Thomas discuss his debut novel In the Upper Country.

It was the second year for the One Book, One Niagara initiative, a region-wide book club aimed at connecting residents across the region through the shared experience of reading the same book. All13 library systems in Niagara, including those at Brock University and Niagara College, participate in the program. 

Kelly Spence, marketing and outreach coordinator for the Lincoln Pelham Public Library, was one of the organizers who brought together Thomas and moderator Patty Krawec, an Anishinaabe and Ukrainian writer originally from Lac Seul First Nation and the author of the book Becoming Kin, for the culminating book club event. 

The evening began with a performance by the local Indigenous women’s group the Strong Water Singers, of which Krawec is a member. They sang two traditional songs honouring the elements and snake medicine.

Then Kerry Goring, Krawec’s co-host of the Medicine for the Resistance podcast, performed a ritual pouring of libations, designed to welcome the spirits of the audience’s ancestors into the space for the evening. 

That was followed by an hour-long conversation between Krawec, a Niagara Falls resident who spent her toddler years living with her family on a Niagara-on-the-Lake farm, and Thomas, about his book that focuses on the conversation between two women in a Canadian town populated by people who have fled enslavement during the 1800s.

Spence explained that, as for last year’s book Care Of by Ivan Coyote, the work chosen for One Book, One Niagara has to be by a Canadian author, be recently published and available as an audiobook, e-book and in large-print formats. It also must appeal to the broadest possible audience, including readers of varying ages, literacy levels and life experiences, and readily generate discussion and an exchange of ideas.

“The staff from all the libraries suggest titles and we create a shortlist,” explained Spence. “We look for books that fit our criteria. Kai’s book focuses on a history that many people might not know. It deals with freedom seekers and Indigenous histories, which we have so much of here in Niagara.”

In the Upper Country lays bare the intertwining of those two long-marginalized cultures in the period between the War of 1812 and the American Civil War. 

“You see the similarities and the unique differences,” Spence told The Local. “You see how they are both tied to the land and how both groups were forced to lose their connection to the land. It’s beautifully woven together in the book”

Thomas’ novel also focuses on another common thread between the two communities - the oral storytelling tradition passed down from generation to generation.

“One of those traditions is the griot tradition of West Africa,” Thomas told The Local before the start of the event. “I tried to locate myself within that tradition as a storyteller to a certain extent. That tradition tells the past by referencing real events while using allegory and other storytelling techniques.”

“I’m all about excavating these stories that we were never told,” added Krawec. “It’s about unforgetting the history. What I love about Kai’s book is how he excavates and tells these stories in a fictional setting that allows you to connect emotionally.”

Kai told the audience it was an old photograph of a man named John 'Daddy' Hall, whose father was Mohawk and mother was African, that inspired In the Upper Country.

“He was involved in the War of 1812 and his life spanned the entire 19th century,” said Thomas. “He was in the Upper Canada Rebellion, the Underground Railroad, all of these different chapters of history. His life story guided me.”

Hall is not one of the protagonists of In the Upper Country, however. Set around the time of the American Civil War, the conversations between the journalist Lensinda and a woman named Cash, jailed for the murder of a slave hunter in a largely Black Canadian community across the river from Detroit, Michigan, are the vehicle used by Thomas to relate the history of the time. 

The two begin an awkward, tense relationship during which they trade stories back and forth, encompassing the hardships faced by them and their ancestors. 

Krawec did not shy away from discussing the concept of Indigenous complicity in the slave trade with early French settlers in and around colonial Detroit. It is one of the more fraught aspects of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the formerly enslaved through the 1700s and 1800s depicted in Thomas’ novel. 

“The French in Detroit also enslaved Indigenous people,” added Thomas. “For me, the question became what was going on, how did they fight back? How were people interacting culturally, and what systems began to emerge? I had never seen that depicted in film, or read it in literature.”

Admitting that relationships between the two cultures have always been complicated, Krawec pointed out that those complications are likely her favourite part of In the Upper Country. 

“Those difficult parts of our relationships are still a part of our lives today,” Krawec said. “I really appreciated that in the book. Fiction teaches us how to be human and how to get along with each other.”

The two demonstrated a mutual appreciation of each other and their work. Thomas complimented Krawec’s Becoming Kin multiple times, while Krawec went on to express her love of the non-linear narrative style used by Thomas throughout In the Upper Country. 

“That may just be the product of me being a Millennial who watches way too many YouTube videos,” joked Thomas. 

Thomas’ novel has struck a chord across Canada. In the Upper Country has become a national bestseller, won the 2023 Writers’ Trust Atwood Gibson Prize, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and was long listed for the 2024 Walter Scott Historical Fiction Award. 

Thomas signed copies of his book for many audience members outside the auditorium following the on-stage discussion.

“It’s been an incredible honour to get the good reviews, the awards and the mentions,” Thomas said. “I had no idea what to expect. I love these events where I can hear from different people how the book lands for them. It’s a privilege to put something like this out into the world and have it be a catalyst for different conversations.”