Canadian writer Simpson (As We Have Always Done) draws on indigenous Abinhinaabeg beliefs to create a bold, affecting portrait of an urban landscape and its network of living beings. Mashkawaji, two years after falling into ice and being frozen, remembers and experiences the world through a sensory connection to people, animals, and plant life in Toronto from her place under the ice. Naantig, a maple tree, is Mashkawaji’s lungs and normally resides in Tommy Thompson Park, but sometimes goes wandering. Adik, a caribou and Mashkawaji’s nervous system, discovers a discarded backpack and buys a digital recorder at Best Buy. 

Read the entire review.