• Grade: 9 to 12
• Reading age: 15 to 18

Dearest Departed, I do not know when I decided I was going to write. I am not a writer. You are. You were.

Honorary twins Ally and Andy, born at the start and end of the same year, have always shared everything — until Ally dies, his passing ruled a suicide by overdose. A year later, Andy starts her first year at college without her other half, writing letters to Ally as she makes new friends who know nothing about him, falls in love for the first time, and strives to embrace her bisexuality and her Indigenous identity. When Andy discovers the poems Ally hid in their room, she pieces together these remaining fragments to make sense of her brother’s life — and his death.

A story told through letters and poems, The Fragments that Remain is a heart-wrenching and hopeful debut novel from Mackenzie Angeconeb.

Mackenzie Angeconeb (Aan-ji-qui-ni-ai’ib) (she/they) is an Anishinaabekwe author and educator from Lac Seul First Nation. She began writing while attending university, incorporating themes from the common pains of Indigenous youths and families, as well as her own coming-of-age. In their spare time, they like to paint with watercolours and acrylics, bead earrings, read second-hand books, or learn Anishinaabemowin when their schedule permits. The Fragments that Remain is her debut novel. Angeconeb lives in Sioux Lookout, ON.

Mackenzie Angeconeb's profile page

“[The] Fragments that Remain takes the reader on a candid journey of brokenness and awakenings. Through layers of grief, the narrator navigates the path toward hope and healing with beautifully authentic thoughts, feelings and experiences. This novel, the first from Mackenzie Angeconeb, is a triumph.”

Valerie Sherrard, award-winning author of The Glory Wind and Standing on Neptune

“[A] powerful exploration of identity and trauma. … An affirming account of an Indigenous teen’s experience with multiple forms of loss.”

Kirkus Reviews