Read My Book: Prairie Grass by Joan Soggie

Like the grassland’s hidden roots, the characters’ lives mingle and support each other as they change the land and the land moulds them.

By Joan Soggie

I am very near-sighted.

Until I got my first glasses at the age of seven, I lived in a world of soft edges, hazy lines and indistinct features. Only what came within a few inches of my nose was clearly defined.

Perhaps that is why I became entranced with the tiny plants and animals of the prairies, anything that could be studied while lying on my stomach in the grass, anything small enough to pick up and hold in my hand.  I brought home toads in my pocket, carried lichen-etched rocks in my lunch pail, decorated mud pies with caterpillars, picked bouquets of buttercups and snowdrops for my Mom. My small world filled up with wonder.

By the time eyeglasses brought the wide world into focus, the pattern was already set. I have remained hooked by the small and overlooked corners of natural and human history.

Pre-settlement times fascinated me. Almost-forgotten tales of ordinary people, Indigenous, Metis and homesteader, grew into my novel Prairie Grass. Sketches of prairie plants, some by artist Saskia Van Walsum, are interspersed throughout.

The Northern Plains and its tumultuous history act as both setting and major player in this centuries-long drama. Like the grassland’s hidden roots, the characters’ lives mingle and support each other as they change the land and the land moulds them. Newcomer Gabriella Mackenzie enters the story as an observer. She quickly becomes a participant.

If you read my book, you may meet characters you recognize, or rediscover a landscape you once knew. On the other hand, you may discover places or people the like of which you’ve never met. Whether it is a new or a déjà vu experience, I hope you will enjoy this Saskatchewan story.

Joan Soggie lives and writes in Elbow, Saskatchewan — most of the time. Her previous books are Mistaseni: Buffalo Rock of The Elbow and Looking for Aiktow: Stories behind the History of The Elbow of the South Saskatchewan River. Prairie Grass is her first work of fiction. It is published by BWL Publishing Inc. — bookswelove.net/soggie-joan/

Prairie Grass is available from Amazon, Kobo, Indigo and all participating bookstores. books2read.com/Prairie-Grass

bookswelove.net/historical-literary-fiction-authors/soggie-joan/

Digital ISBNs

EPUB 9780228610281

Kindle 9780228610298

WEB 9780228610304

Print ISBNs

BWL Print 9780228610311

Amazon Print 9780228610328

Published by BWL Publishing Inc