Home Shop Books Fiction Junie by Chelene Knight

A riveting exploration of the complexity within mother-daughter relationships and the dynamic vitality of Vancouver's former Hogan's Alley neighbourhood. 1930s, Hogan's Alley - a thriving Black and immigrant community located in Vancouver's East End. Junie is a creative, observant child who moves to the alley with her mother, Maddie: a jazz singer with a growing alcohol dependency. Junie quickly makes meaningful relationships with two mentors and a girl her own age, Estelle, whose resilient and entrepreneurial mother is grappling with white scrutiny and the fact that she never really wanted a child. As Junie finds adulthood, exploring her artistic talents and burgeoning sexuality, her mother sinks further into the bottle while the thriving neighbourhood - once gushing with potential - begins to change. As her world opens, Junie intuits the opposite for the community she loves. Told through the fascinating lens of a bright woman in an oft-disquieting world, this book is intimate and urgent - not just an unflinching look at the destruction of a vibrant community, but a celebration of the Black lives within. "This is a vivid, indelible world, one made more poignant by its coming loss." - ESI EDUGYAN, two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning author of Washington Black and Half-Blood Blues "Junie is as dreamy and driven as any classic coming-of-age heroine. Page by page, we grow fonder of this compelling young Black woman who ultimately wins our compassion, delight, and respect. - DONNA BAILEY NURSE, literary critic "A jewel of a novel." - JEN SOOKFONG LEE, author of The Shadow List "The picture Knight paints of Hogan's Alley is vibrant and complex. The place comes back to life in this novel." - HARRISON MOONEY, author of Invisible Boy: A Memory of Self Discovery

Junie by Chelene Knight. For long description of book preview images, click on link below the heading Description.

Junie by Chelene Knight

C$24.00

Paperback, 334 pages, ISBN: 9781771667685
Published by Book*hug Press, 2022

In stock

Sold By: Young W

Categories: Fiction, Books

See long description associated with images on this page.
From the publisher:

A riveting exploration of the complexity within mother-daughter relationships and the dynamic vitality of Vancouver’s former Hogan’s Alley neighbourhood.

1930s, Hogan’s Alley—a thriving Black and immigrant community located in Vancouver’s East End. Junie is a creative, observant child who moves to the alley with her mother, Maddie: a jazz singer with a growing alcohol dependency. Junie quickly makes meaningful relationships with two mentors and a girl her own age, Estelle, whose resilient and entrepreneurial mother is grappling with white scrutiny and the fact that she never really wanted a child.

As Junie finds adulthood, exploring her artistic talents and burgeoning sexuality, her mother sinks further into the bottle while the thriving neighbourhood—once gushing with potential—begins to change. As her world opens, Junie intuits the opposite for the community she loves.

Told through the fascinating lens of a bright woman in an oft-disquieting world, this book is intimate and urgent—not just an unflinching look at the destruction of a vibrant community, but a celebration of the Black lives within.

About the author:

Chelene Knight

Vancouver-born Chelene Knight is the author of Braided Skin and the memoir Dear Current Occupant, winner of the 2018 Vancouver Book Award. Her essays have appeared in multiple Canadian and American literary journals and newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and The Walrus and her work has been widely anthologized. Her poem ‘Welwitschia’ won the 2020 Contemporary Verse 2‘s Editor’s Choice award. She was shortlisted for PRISM‘s 2021 Short Forms contest. Chelene is the founder of her own literary studio, Breathing Space Creative, through which she has launched The Forever Writers Club, whose members are writers focused on creative sustainability. Chelene works as a literary agent with the Transatlantic Agency. She lives in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia.

(Credits: Publisher’s description has been retrieved from BiblioShare. Front and back cover photo by Jenn Collins.)