Sandy Mecowatch, a descendant of Missinabi Cree people, falls through the ice leaving behind his wife Louise and eleven year old daughter Alison "Joe Pete". Joe Pete's grief propels her to risk searching for her father in the same winter conditions that took him. Along with her obedient and protective cousin Simon, they embark on a journey where they will find more than they anticipated buried beneath the snow. Their journey will unlock the ancestors and spirits embedded in the present who call back to a past marked by war and kinship, by conflict and wisdom that continue to contour their trajectory towards the future.

Ian McCulloch (1957-2019) was born in Comox, B.C. and raised in Northern Ontario. A member of the Chapleau Cree First Nation (Fox Lake), his writing was deeply influenced by family and his indigenous heritage. He was the author of three books of poetry: The Moon of Hunger (Penumbra, 1982), The Efficiency of Killers (Penumbra, 1988) and Parables and Rain (Penumbra, 1993) and the chapbooks, A Balsam to Ease All Pains (Alburnum Press, 1998), Certain Humans and A Box of Light (both above/ground press, 2019). He was also the author of the novel Childforever (Mercury, 1996). A founding member of Northern Ontario's longest-running reading series, The Conspiracy of Three.

Ian McCulloch's profile page