Free Press
Book Club

Welcome to the Free Press Book Club!

This monthly book club runs completely online and is open to everyone.

Each month, we choose a novel and share it on this page, as well as in an email to those who have registered to participate. We send a couple of follow-up notes to check in on your progress and suggest a few discussion topics and questions to think about as you go.

At the end of the month, we gather to participate in a livestream book club meeting, hosted by our books editor, Ben Sigurdson, or one of our pals from McNally Robinson Booksellers, as well as the author of the book.

You can submit questions ahead of time, or drop them into one of the live chat boxes during the meeting. (And don’t worry, we provide an easy-to-access link to the stream, so all you have to do is click.)

Our focus is on local authors of varying genres and backgrounds, and we hope you’re excited to dive in.

The Book

Black Cherokee
By: Antonio Michael Downing

Buy Now

On the rain-swollen banks of the River Etsi in South Carolina, Ophelia Blue Rivers–six years old in 1992–catches frogs and stretches to reach the swaying sunflowers. She’s an orphan raised in a rustic cabin by her Grandma Blue, a descendent of the Black Cherokee Freedmen. Caught in deep currents of history that she doesn’t understand, she is, as her grandma says: “half Black, half Cherokee, and all mixed up.”

While Ophelia may not always understand where she came from, there’s no mistaking where she’d rather be: caught in the warmth of Grandma Blue’s cabin, listening to bedtime Cherokee legends as collard greens hiss in the frying pan.

But one day, a tall stranger with a black denim jacket and a charming smile appears, and his arrival shatters Ophelia’s world. She finds herself whisked away from all she knows to live with her Auntie Oba, the boisterous woman she had only met in rumours.

So begins Ophelia’s spirited, at times harrowing, search for home and family–a journey that takes her from a majority-white high school to the inner sanctum of a Black evangelical church to the throbbing dance floors of underground Southern clubs and to a final, devastating encounter with the scion of a wealthy, white family. She must ask herself: What does it mean to belong when the terms of that belonging come at such a high price?

With dazzling language, keen insight, and an unforgettable voice, Black Cherokee is not only an astonishing novel but a profound meditation on race, identity, and coming of age from a major literary talent.

Schedule

Wed
Apr 1

April book club pick reminder

Black Cherokee, by Antonio Michael Downing

Mon
Apr 13

Check-in

Expect an email from us to check in on your progress. We offer up some discussion questions and other things to think about as you continue reading.

Mon
Apr 20

Livestream information email

This email provides all the information you need for our livestream book club event, including the access link, some information about your viewing options and how you can submit your questions for the author ahead of time.

Tue
Apr 28

Free Press Book Club meeting

Join our live chat starting at 7PM CT with special guest, author Antonio Michael Downing.

If you have any questions, please email us at bookclub@winnipegfreepress.com