Bones of a Giant

a novel by Brian Thomas Isaac

THE SECOND NOVEL FROM BESTSELLING INDIGENOUS AUTHOR BRIAN THOMAS ISAAC

“Brian Thomas Isaac is one of the most authentic voices among Indigenous authors. In Bones of a Giant, he spins a complex yet navigable tale that opens a window onto a time of struggle, privation and an undying determination to survive and thrive despite the powerful forces of colonialism that pressed for an opposite result.” — MICHELLE GOOD, award-winning author of Five Little Indians

“I developed such an affinity with this family and community that the book felt like a tremendous gift. With this novel, Brian Thomas Isaac has generously created both a refuge for and celebration of Indigenous resilience.” — WAUBGESHIG RICE, bestselling author of Moon of the Turning Leaves

“A compelling novel, honest and compassionate, haunted by the past. Towards the end I tried to slow down, not wanting the story to end, but it wasn’t possible.” — MARY LAWSON, bestselling author of A Town Called Solace

“Brian Thomas Isaac reinforces his place as one of Canada’s most engaging novelists with the tender, troubling coming-of-age story of Lewis, a 16-year-old growing up on the Okanagan Reserve. He’s a boy who sees and feels everything with intensity—the joy of swimming in a river, the cruelty of a racist neighbour,  the complexity of his mother’s love, the sensations of his first deep kiss, the injustices of the Indian Act, which keeps turning his family's life upside down. I couldn’t put Bones of a Giant down, wondering to the end if Lewis is just too sweet and vulnerable for the mean world around him.” — CAROL OFF, award-winning author of At a Loss for Words

"A clear-eyed love story to both a people and a place. Brian Thomas Isaac is a vital voice." — DAVID BERGEN, award-winning author of Here the Dark

“Bones of a Giant has good bones. Isaac is a masterful storyteller with an observant eye for nature and a deep compassion for his characters. I loved this book.” — THOMAS WHARTON, award-winning author of The Book of Rain

From the award-winning, bestselling author of All the Quiet Places, comes Brian Thomas Isaac's highly anticipated, haunting and tender return to the Okanagan Indian Reserve and a teenager's struggle to become a man in a world of racism and hardship.

Summer, 1968. For the first time since his big brother, Eddie, disappeared two years earlier—either a runaway or dead by his own hand—sixteen-year-old Lewis Toma has shaken off some of his grief. His mother, Grace, and her friend Isabel have gone south to the United States to pick fruit to earn the cash Grace needs to put a bathroom and running water into the three-room shack they share on the reserve, leaving Lewis to spend the summer with his cousins, his Uncle Ned and his Aunt Jean in the new house they’ve built on their farm along the Salmon River. Their warm family life is almost enough to counter the pressures he feels as a boy trying to become a man in a place where responsible adult men like his uncle are largely absent, broken by residential school and racism. Everywhere he looks, women are left to carry the load, sometimes with kindness, but often with the bitterness, anger and ferocity of his own mother, who kicked Lewis’s lowlife father, Jimmy, to the curb long ago.

Lewis has vowed never to be like his father—but an encounter with a predatory older woman tests him and he suffers the consequences. Worse, his dad is back in town and scheming on how to use the Indian Act to steal the land Lewis and his mom have been living on. And then, at summer's end, more shocking revelations shake the family, unleashing a deadly force of anger and frustration.

With so many traps laid around him, how will Lewis find a path to a different future?

Brian and the rest of the 2023 Giller Prize jury

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See also
brianthomasisaac.com 
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RIGHTS SOLD
Canada: Random House (May 2025)

85,000 words / First page proofs now available


ABOUT BRIAN THOMAS ISAAC

Brian Thomas Isaac was born in 1950 on the Okanagan Indian Reserve near Vernon, BC. After completing grade eight, he found work in the oil fields and in construction, and eventually retired as a bricklayer. At the age of fifty, without any formal training, he began to write and fifteen years later, he completed his first novel, All the Quiet Places. His bestselling debut won the 2022 Indigenous Voices Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and CBC’s Canada Reads. He was also a member of the jury for the 2023 Scotia Bank Giller prize.  Brian and his wife live in West Kelowna where he enjoys time with his three grandchildren and is currently working on his third book. 

Praise for All the Quiet Places