Why Canada Reads author Eden Robinson wrote a modern Trickster tale

This interview originally aired on March 20, 2017.

Eden Robinsongrew up on theHaisla Nation Kitamaatreserve on British Columbia's central coast. She rose to literary prominence after her 2000novel Monkey Beach was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Her novelSon of a Tricksteris a contemporary Trickster storytold in the voice of Jared, a teenager who drinks and smokes too much and has a tumultuous relationship with his intimidating mother.

ActorKaniehtiio Hornis defendingSon of a TricksteronCanada Reads2020.

Canada Reads2020 will take place July 20-23.

Robinsonspoke with Shelagh Rogers in 2017 about how she wrote thenovel.

Bringing mythic characters into the present day

"There were multiple inspirations for this story. In its earliest incarnation, I was in a storytelling festival in Prince George, and I heard the novelistRichard Van Camp tella story about the women at the All-NativeBasketball Tournament. It just tickled me to see characters from our mythology in the present. That hung around in the back of my head for a long time.

"At the same time, I was writing a collection of short stories about a First Nations dance group forming and collapsing in East Vancouver. One of the stories I was writing involved a young man coming down on a Greyhound bus from a northern community and experiencing Vancouver for the first time. That image just stayed with me."

• Eden Robinson on her musical afterlife and dream CanLit Trivial Pursuit Partner

Living, breathing stories

"If you are invitedto a potlatch, then you are there as a witness, and the redistribution is payment for your role as a witness. You're publicly acknowledging the event, and if you are asked about it, you are expected to recount truthfully and honestly what happened at that event. It's a way of keeping public accountability.

I think of a novel as something in amber, whereas the oral stories are still alive and flying around.- Eden Robinson

"The stories that I grew up with are fluid. They're living, breathing things that need tending, whereas a novel is its own little encased world. I think of a novel as something in amber, whereas the oral stories are still alive and flying around."

• Why it took Eden Robinson eight years to writeSon of a Trickster

Eden Robinson's comments have been edited and condensed.

TheCanada Reads2020 contenders

• Alayna FenderdefendingSmall Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Clubby Megan Gail Coles
• Akil AugustinedefendingRadicalizedby Cory Doctorow
• Amanda Brugel defendingWe Have Always Been Hereby Samra Habib
• Kaniehtiio HorndefendingSon of a Tricksterby Eden Robinson
• George CanyondefendingFrom the Ashesby Jesse Thistle