Preview
  • The Back of the Turtle

  • A Novel
  • By: Thomas King
  • Narrated by: Doug Philip
  • Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

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The Back of the Turtle

By: Thomas King
Narrated by: Doug Philip
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Publisher's summary

Winner of the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction!

This is Thomas King's first literary novel in 15 years and follows on the success of the award-winning and best-selling The Inconvenient Indian and his beloved Green Grass, Running Water and Truth and Bright Water, both of which continue to be taught in Canadian schools and universities. Green Grass, Running Water is widely considered a contemporary Canadian classic.

In The Back of the Turtle, Gabriel returns to Smoke River, the reserve where his mother grew up and to which she returned with Gabriel's sister. The reserve is deserted after an environmental disaster killed the population, including Gabriel's family, and the wildlife. Gabriel, a brilliant scientist working for Domidion, created GreenSweep, and indirectly led to the crisis. Now he has come to see the damage and to kill himself in the sea. But as he prepares to let the water take him, he sees a young girl in the waves. Plunging in, he saves her, and soon is saving others. Who are these people with their long black hair and almond eyes who have fallen from the sky?

Filled with brilliant characters, trademark wit, wordplay, and a thorough knowledge of native myth and story-telling, this novel is a masterpiece by one of our most important writers.

©2013 Thomas King (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
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Classic King

Perfect for those already familiar with King, and those who have never read/heard him before. A playful blend of Indigenous and Euro-Western allegories, with something to say about contemporary life.

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