Return of the Trickster

THE THIRD AND FINAL BOOK OF THE BRILLIANT AND CAPTIVATING TRICKSTER TRILOGY, FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SCOTIABANK GILLER-PRIZE FINALIST SON OF A TRICKSTER AND TRICKSTER DRIFT

“Robinson manages to skilfully pull off a series that accomplishes a whole number of things at the same time: this novel—and the trilogy as a whole—is a thrilling, magic-realist adventure story; a compelling domestic novel that explores the various kinds of family: biological, intentional, and community; a grim ride into sadistic darkness (there’s a torture scene that will forever change the way you look at deep fryers); and wickedly funny, hard-edged and sardonic, tender and emotionally true. It’s a coming of age story that spans universes.” — TORONTO STAR

“Eden Robinson builds to an epic and exhilarating supernatural confrontation. What a gift it is, to lose yourself in the final volume of Eden Robinson’s Trickster trilogy. For anyone who is tired of being relentlessly tethered to their personal pandemic reality, Return of the Trickster offers a surreal escape into a familiar but fantastical world.” — THE VANCOUVER SUN

a novel by Eden Robinson

“It’s kill or be killed, bucko. Get with the program.” They were words Jared’s mother, Maggie, lived by, words she tried to drill into him like the magical warding she poured onto and in him and that wrapped around his entire being and sank into his blood and bones. She anchored her protection to his body to shield him from magical beings who wished him harm and he pissed it, her best work, away like he didn’t have a care in the world, like he was a normal human instead of the son of Wee’git, a Trickster, the only one of Wee’git’s 535 children who won the magical lottery.

His mother’s philosophy for life was not something Jared could ever follow. Her default setting was to kick, smash or shoot things to smithereens, while he just wanted to make the world around him a kinder, safer, place. But how can that even be a possibility when David, his mom’s psycho ex-boyfriend, starts following him, ramping up his stalking to frightening new levels? And then there’s his father’s sister, his Aunt Georgina, a maniacal ogress hungry for his power. She forced him into mortal combat and he in turn accidentally transported her and her family of shape-shifting coy wolves to another dimension where the coy wolves all died. Now Georgina is no longer interested in turning Jared into her slave, nor is she satisfied in sucking the marrow from his bones and nibbling his organs like chocolatey bonbons. No. She wants revenge. Big time. On him, on his whole family, on anyone and everyone who even has a remote association with him.

Kill…

…or be killed…

Jared can no longer deny who—what—he is: He is the son of Wee'git, a Trickster. And if he wants to save everyone and everything he holds dear, it was time to embrace his Trickster heritage and, quite possibly, actually take his mother’s advice: get with the program.

Read an excerpt
See all author's titles
The Career of Eden Robinson

90,000 words
Finished books available

RIGHTS SOLD

Canada: Knopf, October 2021
Canada English Audio: Penguin Random House Canada


ABOUT EDEN ROBINSON

Eden Robinson is the author of the bestselling Trickster trilogy, starting with Son of a Trickster (2017), a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a CBC Canada Reads contender. The sequel Trickster Drift (2018) won the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize for Fiction. The third volume, Return of the Trickster (2021), was called “a gift” by the Vancouver Sun and “funny, tender, and emotionally true” by the Toronto Star. But it is her first novel, Monkey Beach (2000), winner of the Ethel Wilson BC Book Prize and a finalist for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award, that is a perennial bestseller and is required reading in schools and universities; 100,000 copies are in print in Canada. Recently Book Riot listed Monkey Beach as one of 22 must-read books by indigenous authors.

In 2017 Eden won the $50,000 Writers Trust of Canada Fellowship. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of British Columbia in 2018. She served on the five-member Scotiabank Giller Prize jury in 2020. In 2022 she was awarded the Blue Metropolis First Peoples’ Literary Prize in Montreal. Currently she is serving on the jury for the Carol Shields Literary Prize for Fiction. A member of the Haisla and Hieltsuk First Nations, she lives in Kitimat, in northern British Columbia near Alaska.

Eden Robinson at Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists on November 6, 2017
(Photo credit: Carla Robinson)

PRAISE FOR SON OF A TRICKSTER AND TRICKSTER DRIFT

“Son of a Trickster is her best work. It’s heartbreaking, it’s hilarious, it’s subversive, it’s harsh, it’s brutal, and so deeply tender.” —MIRIAM TOEWS

“The first in a trilogy, Son of a Trickster is an incredibly engaging, coming-of-age story of an indigenous teen in northern British Columbia. Eden Robinson’s almost magical ability to blend wry humor, magical realism and teenage reality will have you holding your breath for the next in the series.”— THE NEW YORK TIMES, “Summer Reads from Canada”

“The book is full of light and love. Robinson has a loopy and wonderful sense of humour, expressed not justy by her trademark laughter but her delightful author's bios.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL

“Robinson handles the new instalment of Jared’s story with ease and grace, her trademark good humour and often-disturbing imagination in equal display…. The third novel can’t come soon enough.” — THE TORONTO STAR

“Canadian Haisla/Heiltsuk writer Eden Robinson has delivered the second in her Trickster trilogy—the first installment, Son of a Trickster, was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Trickster Drift is even better. It’s an enlightening, entertaining and very funny novel.” — NOW (Toronto)

“My favourite book of 2019 is Trickster Drift. Eden’s amazing writing style shines through brilliantly, once again: the Words fly off the page—which allows the reader to experience the characters, scenes and plot vividly because the mechanics of reading don’t ever get in the way. Eden’s characters are vibrant and real—I actually expect to bump into a few of them the next time I’m in Vancouver.”
 — DARREL J. MCLEOD, author of Mamaskatch, CBC Books