THE WHITE GIRL by Tony Birch

THE WHITE GIRL

Birch, Tony HarperVia/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $16.99 paper | March 15, 2022 978-0-06-321353-1

In this novel by Indigenous Australian author Birch, generational trauma and healing are explored through the lives of a dark-skinned woman and her light-skinned granddaughter.

Odette Brown is the proverbial strong Black woman, but that’s where simple categorizations cease. Odette’s daughter, Lila, abandoned her own toddler more than a decade ago, leaving the light-skinned girl in Odette’s care. Now Sissy is on the verge of her teenage years, having known only the love and protection of her grandmother, and a rigid new officer, Sgt. Lowe, has arrived to run the local police station. Unlike the old guard, which was content leaving well enough alone, this new lawman is a zealot, convinced of the righteousness of his cause, which spells trouble for Odette and Sissy. They’re Aboriginals, and with her mother gone, Sissy should fall under the guardianship of the state, a policy that Lowe intends to enforce. The shameful true history of Australia’s racist policies of the early- and mid-20th century is presented in part through Odette’s story but also through snippets about other families torn apart by this disastrous program as Birch shines a light on the countless untold stories of the Stolen Generation. With accessible prose and a driving plot, Birch brings the period to life, and the depth and realism of the characters give the book a feeling of authenticity. Odette’s dogged resolve is matched by the kindness and bravery of her supporters, both White and Black, as she and Sissy fight to stay together. Birch plumbs the murk for a story that’s all heart.

An uplifting novel that celebrates love, family, and the women who put those qualities first in their lives.

PROBABLY RUBY

Bird-Wilson, Lisa Hogarth (304 pp.) $27.00 | April 5, 2022 978-0-593-44867-0

A bighearted portrait of an Indigenous woman whose transracial adoption spurs a lifelong quest to discover—or perhaps create—her identity. Born in the 1970s to a White, unmarried teenage mother and a Métis/Cree father, Ruby is placed in foster care and eventually adopted by a White couple who “couldn’t afford to be too choosy” about the baby’s Indigenous heritage. Ruby’s adoptive father, a seldomemployed alcoholic, leaves the family when Ruby is an adolescent. Ruby remains unhappily with her mother, Alice, who makes her wear a huge hat because her skin “instantly browned up in the sun” and who won’t help her daughter research her Indigenous roots. Deprived of both her own history and real affection as she comes of age, Ruby grasps for satisfaction where she can find it, often resorting to alcohol and sex with unworthy partners. The novel is composed of chapters dated by year and titled with the names of people who have shaped Ruby, including her adoptive and biological parents, boyfriends, and social workers. The random ordering of the vignettes—ranging from 1950 to 2018—can be confusing. Some chapters are told from Ruby’s perspective and involve figures in her life, while others assume the points of view of family members Ruby never meets. The chapter about Ruby’s pregnant birth mother is a heartbreaking account of what happens when women lack reproductive freedom, and the chapter that follows Ruby’s grandfather convincingly renders the abuse he suffers as a student at one of Canada’s notorious residential schools for Indigenous children. Sometimes the fragmented narrative is unsatisfying: As soon as one character’s central trauma is revealed, the novel moves on to another, leaving little opportunity for development. Only Ruby is fully realized by the end. But readers may forgive clunky