Split Tooth

"This book, the first from Inuit musician Tanya Tagaq, defies easy categorization. (The Globe and Mail tried “mythobiography,” which seems as good as anything.) Split Tooth juxtaposes sharply-observed vignettes of puberty, heartbreaking vulnerability and vivid bursts of the supernatural; they sometimes keep uneasy company but are held together by the sheer presence of the narrator as she guides us over her icy landscape, trusting us to understand the power of storytelling — both as a literary device and as a necessity for navigating life. The result is a raw-edged tale as hypnotic and unrelenting as any of Tagaq’s performances."