• Age: 14
• Grade: 9

Winner of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award (Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards).Set in Canada’s Subarctic in the late 1700s, a time when the Dogrib people were under constant threat of attack by raiders supplied with European weapons. After Ikotsali saves Tatsea and her father following a huntingaccident, Tatsea is obliged to marry their strange-looking rescuer. One day when Ikotsali is away from camp, raiders arrive and kill everyone. The only lives spared are those of Tatsea, who is captured, and their infant daughter, whom she has hidden. When Ikotsali returns to find the carnage, the story of their struggle to survive and be reunited begins.“Tatsea brings back the years when our grandparents lived their lives.”—Mike Nitsiza, counsellor, Mezi Community School, Wha Ti, Northwets Territories

Armin Wiebe is the recipient of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. He has five published novels, one play, and his short stories have appeared in numerous books and anthologies. A teacher for many years, Armin Wiebe is now retired and lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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Tatsea

This fictional survival story is set in the Canadian Subarctic in the 1760s before the white man completely invaded the north, but as harmful influences such as guns and alcohol arrive. Tatsea and Ikotsali are an unlikely couple from the Dogrib tribe who become separated during a horrible raid on their village by Cree warriors. Though neither is sure of the other’s continued existence after the raid, they do find each other again after a year surviving in the harsh northern climate. Part love story, part history lesson, part adventure, this book chronicles what life might have been like 250 years ago as the many native tribes, and eventually the white man, begin to clash over land, rights and customs in the Canadian north.

Tatsea was awarded the 2004 McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Lawrence Award for Fiction. A teacher’s guide is available from www.arminwiebe.ca.

Caution: Contains some violent and suggestive scenes.