Roughneck
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author and award-winning creator of Essex County, Descender, and The Underwater Welder comes an all-original graphic novel about a brother and sister who must come together after years apart to face the disturbing history that has cursed their family.
Derek Ouellette’s glory days are behind him. His hockey career ended a decade earlier in a violent incident on ice, and since then he’s been living off his reputation in the remote northern community where he grew up, drinking too much and fighting anyone who crosses him. When his long-lost sister Beth shows up, on the run from an abusive boyfriend, the two escape to a secluded hunting camp in the woods. There, living off the land, they reconnect with each other, the painful secrets of their past, and their Cree heritage...and start to heal. But Beth’s ex-boyfriend is hunting them. As he circles closer, he threatens to shatter this newfound peace and pull both Derek and Beth back into the world of self-destruction they’ve fought so hard to leave behind. Touching and harrowing, this is a deeply moving and beautifully illustrated story about family, heritage, and breaking the cycle of violence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lemire (Essex County) dives into the murkiest depths of addiction, abuse, and family trauma in this heartbreaking volume. Derek Ouellette's glory days in the NHL are far behind now, he's known mostly for alcoholism, public urination, and bar fights. When his younger sister, Beth, arrives in town, addicted to Oxycontin and fleeing an abusive boyfriend, he finds he can no longer hide at the bottom of a bottle. The siblings take to the wilderness, in search of sobriety, solitude, and, possibly, a second chance. This is well-worn territory, even within Lemire's oeuvre, but powerful nonetheless. Derek and Beth are trapped within the vicious cycle of abuse and addiction that plague so many like them poor, First Nations, rural but Lemire handles their struggles with grace and uncommon feeling. Every craggy furrow in Derek's face, every wayward hair escaping Beth's braids are imbued with thoughtfulness. It is a pleasure to watch Lemire explore the emotional landscape of lives many prefer to forget and to demonstrate anew how valuable they are.
