Son of a Trickster

THE DARK AND WACKY AGONY OF NATIVE ADOLESCENTS
— THE FIRST OF A TRILOGY

BUZZFEED CALLS SON OF A TRICKSTER ONE OF THE "UNDERRATED FOREIGN NOVELS YOU SHOULD READ"

WATCH EDEN ROBINSON BEING INTERVIEWED BY FELLOW AUTHOR MIRIAM TOEWS

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE
FINALIST FOR THE 2018 BC BOOK PRIZE
2018 COPPER CYLINDER ADULT AWARD WINNER
2020 CANADA READS CONTENDER
TV SERIES BROADCASTING IN FALL 2020

2017 WRITERS' TRUST FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENT

“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”

a novel by Eden Robinson

Son of a Trickster combines aboriginal belief systems and wacky family dynamics with fantasy, horror, and edgy, mordant humour in an unorthodox coming-of-age story. One of seventeen-year-old Jared Martin’s grandmothers insists that he is the son of Wee’git the Trickster, that dangerous shape-shifter who looks innocent but wreaks havoc. His other grandmother insists that “If you weren’t your dad’s and your momma tried to pass you off as his, I’d have slit her throat and left her in a ditch to die like a dog.”  Jared’s far-northern west-coast Native community is closing in on him: his mom’s psycho ex-boyfriend, Death Threat, tries to kill him; Jared is beaten senseless for his weed, essential to the cookie business with which he supports his father, who plays him for all he is worth; his mom takes up with a biker who moves in along with his pit bull, Baby Killer.

 “The world is hard. You have to be harder.” That’s Jared’s mother’s favorite saying. When he starts seeing purple men who follow him everywhere he goes, fireflies who wax philosophical about the universe, and river otters who look like people he knows, at first he thinks it has to be the weed. But Jared is about to find out some hard truths about himself and his family: these supernatural creatures are hell-bent on revenge against them.

The world is hard. Now Jared has to be harder.

PRAISE FOR SON OF A TRICKSTER

“A charmingly chaotic tale.”— THE TORONTO STAR

“Robinson has a gift for making disparate elements come together into a convincing narrative, breathing myth, lore and magic into otherwise harsh realities. The novel clips along with short, pointed sentences and lively scenes of Jared’s conundrum, building in raunchy crescendo as teen anger and spirit worlds collide.”— MACLEAN'S MAGAZINE

“This is an engaging novel whose characters come fully to life.”— THE VANCOUVER SUN

“What this novel does for the non-indigenous reader is to make totem poles, masks, and legends come alive. This remarkable novel takes indigenous writing to a new level.”— DAVID STOUCK in BC BOOKWORLD

“Eden Robinson is a masterful storyteller. Shimmering with deft prose, unforgettable characters, and haunting truths, Son of a Trickster reminds us that sometimes the surest way to solid ground is through believing in magic.”— AMI MCKAY, author of The Birth House, The Virgin Cure and The Witches of New York

“Eden Robinson is a writer with a magical touch. Crisp prose, taut dialogue, and a cast of maniacal characters you sure as hell don't want living next door.”— THOMAS KING, author of The Back of the Turtle

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The Career of Eden Robinson

86,000 words hardcover
Finished books available

RIGHTS SOLD

Canada: Knopf, February 2017
French Canada: Groupe Ville Marie Littérature, March 2023
World English Audio: Audible

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.