• Age: 15
• Grade: 10

The Roads of Go Home Lake is the long-awaited sequel to Christina Kilbourne's award winning novel Where Lives Take Root. When Winnie finds herself suddenly widowed and an unemployed mother of six, she is forced to change her life in order to keep her family together. Illiterate, shy and inexperienced in the ways of the white man's world, Winnie relies on her eldest son and the strength of her Chippewan ancestors to give her the courage to find help.The Roads of Go Home Lake follows Winnie's journey as she faces her darkest secrets and recalls the bittersweet memories of growing up in an abandoned logging town in the 1950's. Here she finds the strength to forgive her parents their weaknesses and cruelties, gives herself permission to remember their tenderness and pride, and is compelled to search for the family she long ago fled. The Roads of Go Home Lake is a novel of heritage and blood, it is a novel of courage and healing, it is a novel of inner growth and universal hope.

Christina Kilbourne was born in Southwestern, Ontario, then moved and spent her elementary and high school years in Muskoka, a resort area two hours north of Toronto. She graduated with an Honours BA in English Literature from the University of Western Ontario in 1990 and completed her Masters degree in Creative Writing and English Literature at the University of Windsor, Ontario. Upon graduating Christina travelled across Africa, Mexico, Central and South America and has lived two years in New Zealand, her husband’s home country. Christina has worked in various jobs writing for newsletters, brochures, handbooks reports and websites for such organizations as CIBC Bank, the Auckland University of Technology, the Regional Municipality of York, and most recently, Conservation Ontario. Christina currently lives with her husband and two children near Mt. Albert, Ontario.

Christina Kilbourne's profile page

The Roads of Go Home Lake

This is the fictional story of Winnie St. Pierre of Chippewa ancestry, mother of six living in Muskoka. During her childhood, Winnie’s family lives off the land while hiding from the police in an old cabin in a ghost town. Winnie learns to shoot, trap and forage for food, but she never goes to school. Driven out at sixteen, Winnie marries the first man she meets. When her husband dies, Winnie overcomes her self-consciousness and shyness to ask for the help she needs to learn to read and write, learn to drive, get a job and track down her estranged family. Flashbacks to Winnie’s childhood inform her determination to be a role model for her children and give her the strength to take control of her life and change the pattern of isolation with which she grew up.

Sequel to Day of the Dog-Tooth Violets.