Kukum

Michel Jean

Jul 2023 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Erin Tripp

About this audiobook

A Quebec bestseller based on the life of Michel Jean’s great-grandmother that delivers an empathetic portrait of drastic change in an Innu community.

Kukum recounts the story of Almanda Siméon, an orphan raised by her aunt and uncle, who falls in love with a young Innu man despite their cultural differences and goes on to share her life with the Pekuakami Innu community. They accept her as one of their own: Almanda learns their language, how to live a nomadic existence, and begins to break down the barriers imposed on Indigenous women. Unfolding over the course of a century, the novel details the end of traditional ways of life for the Innu, as Almanda and her family face the loss of their land and confinement to reserves, and the enduring violence of residential schools.

Kukum intimately expresses the importance of Innu ancestral values and the need for freedom nomadic peoples feel to this day.

About the author

MICHEL JEAN is a writer, TV news anchor, and investigative journalist. The author of eleven books, he also writes and curates short stories and has edited two French-language collections showcasing Indigenous writers: Amun (2016) and Wapke (2021). In his 2012 novel Elle et nous, he opened up about his own Indigenous origins for the very first time. Kukum won the Prix France-Québec in 2020. Michel is Innu from Mashteuiatsh and much of his writing reflects his Indigenous origins.

SUSAN OURIOU is an award-winning fiction writer and literary translator with over sixty translations and co-translations of fiction, non-fiction, children's and young-adult literature to her credit. She has won the Governor General's Literary Award for Translation. Jane, the Fox and Me, co-translated with Christelle Morelli, was named to IBBY's Honour List. She has also published Nathan, a novel for young readers. Susan lives in Calgary, Alberta.