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Jonny Appleseed
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Joshua Whitehead
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
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Jonny Appleseed
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Summary
Winner, Lambda Literary Award; Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction
Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction; Amazon Canada First Novel Award; Indigenous Voices Award; Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award; Firecracker Award for Fiction
Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize
A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year
A tour-de-force debut novel about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man and proud NDN glitter princess who must reckon with his past when he returns home to his reserve.
“You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine” is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling debut novel by poet Joshua Whitehead.
Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living. Self-ordained as an NDN glitter princess, Jonny has one week before he must return to the “rez” - and his former life - to attend the funeral of his stepfather. The seven days that follow are like a fevered dream: stories of love, trauma, sex, kinship, ambition, and the heartbreaking recollection of his beloved kokum (grandmother). Jonny's life is a series of breakages, appendages, and linkages - and as he goes through the motions of preparing to return home, he learns how to put together the pieces of his life.
Jonny Appleseed is a unique, shattering vision of First Nations life, full of grit, glitter, and dreams.
Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country’s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors.
Critic reviews
"If we're lucky, we'll find one or two books in a lifetime that change the language of story, that manage to illuminate new curves in the flat vessels of old letters and words. This is one of those books. Jonny Appleseed gifts us with clarity in the shape of sharp, and medicine in the guise of soft - and a sexy, powerful, broken, beautiful hero who has enough capacity in the dent of a clavicle to hold all the tears of his family. This book gives us back the land of curb and field, trailer and ledge, and the community - in all its rusted and complicated glory. Most importantly, this book gifts us with the opportunity to hear the innovative and the ancient in the prose of a new literary goddess, Joshua Whitehead." (Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves)
"Jonny Appleseed weaponizes story to bring the rez (and urban rez) to life, shrouding its characters in luminous layers so they're neither good nor bad but immersed in worlds and words. Unflinching and intimate, Joshua Whitehead takes his readers on a journey to the heart of an NDN glitter princess with generous, swooning prose. Unforgettable." (Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster)
"With only seven days until he returns home for his stepfather's funeral, Appleseed spends a pyretic week attempting to reconcile the competing factions of his life: sex, friends, work, sex, family, identity, sex. Throughout, memories of his kokum (grandmother) intrude upon the chaos, and these unexpected moments of remembrance prove most striking. A radically original new voice." (Booklist)
What listeners say about Jonny Appleseed
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- doug jarvie
- 08-05-21
Open Door
Think of this book as an invitation into the way of life of someone you have just met. The door has been opened and you can cautiously enter into the home of a culture and belief system that exists in parallel with the teachings and beliefs of your home and culture. Be brave and open your mind to learn.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kris De Leon
- 17-03-21
Incredible!
This is a beautiful & inspiring book filled with love & pain & moments that will open you up, make you laugh & cry & will stick with you long after the story has finished.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John M Sneezy
- 11-11-20
My first Two Spirit themed book/Audible! Awesome!
I can relate to so many of the situations in this book! took me back to my younger days and conquering my own stigma of being Two Spirit!
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nix
- 16-10-20
Meegwetch che Meegwetch
I wept more within this book than I have in a long time, Meegwetch.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alexander Relihan
- 13-07-20
a perfect and healing story
Johnny Appleseed is a story that needs to be shared. It's one that holds so much love and humor and power, even as it tells of pain and grief and loss. it's about the power of 2S and queer love to heal and to help reconcile the pain of the past and the love of the present. please read it okay?
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 06-02-20
Amazing
Joshua tells a many stories in one story that offers truth-telling and acceptance to all who enter.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vijay
- 17-11-22
An easy 5*
Joshua Whitehead can really write. Their prose is so lyrical, you can really tell they are a poet. beautiful.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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- greg smith
- 06-11-21
painfull and slow
I tried to like this book, I mean really tried. given it's about gay life and native Americans, but finally gave up. I'm not sure how this book even made into print.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Janet Clarke Bell
- 05-07-21
What an amazing story
Thank you Joshua for introducing me to your two-spirit world. Your story was poetic, humorous, eye-opening but it didn’t avoid the pain and suffering in your community. I am recommending it to all my friends.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- raymond
- 26-11-19
this is what story is long and self-hating
I listen to as long as I can but it's all about hitting oneself and selling your body and just old negativity.