To read. In bookstores: White Game

It is undoubtedly because Richard Wagamese drew on his own history, on his painful personal experience, that this novel feels so intimate. Because through his character, Saul Idian Horse, the author pays homage to his origins. To the Ojibwe Native American people, one of the most important indigenous groups in the regions that make up present-day Canada.

A character who has decided to tell his story, to share his story, his journey from his childhood in Northern Ontario to the skating rinks, passing through this terrifying boarding school where, in the 1970s, young people like him were placed in order to erase their Indian identity... A true hell where humiliation, racism, mistreatment are mixed... And from which the only escape will turn out to be sport.

And more specifically, ice hockey. It is indeed on the ice that Saul Indian Horse, a gifted player, will be able to express himself and become one of the best players in the country... Enough to restore a bit of dignity to him, give him a new lease of life and give him a little hope in a world that has been nothing but chaos for many years... Without completely escaping human stupidity and, in particular, the scourge that is racism... "He wouldn't let me just be a hockey player. I always had to be an Indian."

Both poetic and harsh, this story is above all deeply human and, for hockey fans, an example of successful sports literature. Which isn't necessarily obvious...

An inspired and inspiring novel, but above all, a necessary one to understand the painful subject of the forced assimilation of Native Americans in Canada and their difficult struggle to gain respect.