Join us for lively discussions about thought-provoking books. Register online or by calling any library, then visit the library hosting this event to pick up your copy of the book.
After registering, pick up your copy of the book at Alice Turner Library.
From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way
Jesse Thistle
From the Ashes is a remarkable memoir about hope and resilience, and a revelatory look into the life of a Métis-Cree man who refused to give up. Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle briefly found himself in the foster care system with his two brothers, cut off from all they had known. Eventually the children landed in the home of their paternal grandparents, but their tough-love attitudes meant conflicts became commonplace. And the ghost of Jesse's drug-addicted father haunted the halls of the house and the memories of every family member. Struggling, Jesse succumbed to a self-destructive cycle of drug and alcohol addiction and petty crime, spending more than a decade on and off the streets, often homeless. One day, he finally realized he would die unless he turned his life around. In this heartwarming and heartbreaking memoir, Jesse Thistle writes honestly and fearlessly about his painful experiences with abuse, uncovering the truth about his parents, and how he found his way back into the circle of his Indigenous culture and family through education.
The Alice Turner Library replaced the smaller Sutherland Branch in December 1998. It was named after Alice Turner McFarland who was a library employee for 37 years and Saskatoon Public Library's chief librarian from 1981 to 1989. The first library in Canada to be built to the standards of C-2000 construction, Canada's environmental building code, the Alice Turner Library was expanded to double its original size in 2013.