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Jonny Appleseed

Written by: Joshua Whitehead
Narrated by: Joshua Whitehead
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Publisher's Summary

Winner, Lambda Literary Award; Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction; Amazon Canada First Novel Award; Indigenous Voices Award; Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award; Firecracker Award for Fiction

Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize

A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year

A tour-de-force debut novel about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man and proud NDN glitter princess who must reckon with his past when he returns home to his reserve.

“You're gonna need a rock and a whole lotta medicine” is a mantra that Jonny Appleseed, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer, repeats to himself in this vivid and utterly compelling debut novel by poet Joshua Whitehead. 

Off the reserve and trying to find ways to live and love in the big city, Jonny becomes a cybersex worker who fetishizes himself in order to make a living. Self-ordained as an NDN glitter princess, Jonny has one week before he must return to the “rez” - and his former life - to attend the funeral of his stepfather. The seven days that follow are like a fevered dream: stories of love, trauma, sex, kinship, ambition, and the heartbreaking recollection of his beloved kokum (grandmother). Jonny's life is a series of breakages, appendages, and linkages - and as he goes through the motions of preparing to return home, he learns how to put together the pieces of his life. 

Jonny Appleseed is a unique, shattering vision of First Nations life, full of grit, glitter, and dreams. 

Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country’s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors.

©2018 Joshua Whitehead (P)2019 Bespeak Audio Editions
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ2S+

What the critics say

"If we're lucky, we'll find one or two books in a lifetime that change the language of story, that manage to illuminate new curves in the flat vessels of old letters and words. This is one of those books. Jonny Appleseed gifts us with clarity in the shape of sharp, and medicine in the guise of soft - and a sexy, powerful, broken, beautiful hero who has enough capacity in the dent of a clavicle to hold all the tears of his family. This book gives us back the land of curb and field, trailer and ledge, and the community - in all its rusted and complicated glory. Most importantly, this book gifts us with the opportunity to hear the innovative and the ancient in the prose of a new literary goddess, Joshua Whitehead." (Cherie Dimaline, author of The Marrow Thieves)

"Jonny Appleseed weaponizes story to bring the rez (and urban rez) to life, shrouding its characters in luminous layers so they're neither good nor bad but immersed in worlds and words. Unflinching and intimate, Joshua Whitehead takes his readers on a journey to the heart of an NDN glitter princess with generous, swooning prose. Unforgettable." (Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster)

"With only seven days until he returns home for his stepfather's funeral, Appleseed spends a pyretic week attempting to reconcile the competing factions of his life: sex, friends, work, sex, family, identity, sex. Throughout, memories of his kokum (grandmother) intrude upon the chaos, and these unexpected moments of remembrance prove most striking. A radically original new voice." (Booklist)

Featured Article: 19 Award-Winning Canadian Fiction Audiobooks to Add to Your Listening List

Canada knows how to write a story, and it has the awards to prove it. These 19 incredible audiobooks are Canadian fiction at its award-winning best.

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What listeners say about Jonny Appleseed

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Y gay?

Was him basically doing it w men for 6 hours straight really needed for the story to progress, I'm sure there were other ways to make money

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bought without review

lol I was shocked when I got the point of the story.. but I can see how hard it might be for a gay ndn man in a straight world. it was a good story.. but it was a long wait for him to get home lol

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raw and emotional

this is not a book I would ordinarily read, however in listening to the author's reading of this story I could feel the anger, frustration and love come through. This book is raw in it's telling of Indigenous reality with regards to stigma and treatment by others who just don't care to get to know or understand. And also how as two spirited people are sometimes not even embraced by their own communities and families. This book is great to show the more difficult side of living on the fringes of 'normal' society and how cruel life can sometimes be.

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Buy this book!!!

This writer amazed me, telling the story of Jonny with so much depth, grit, sensuality, vulnerability, humour and poetry.
It’s told in such an insightful and authentic way, the characters just felt so real.
Highly recommend 💜

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Holy hell this book is good!

Loved every minute of it! I laughed, smiled and felt sad too. Thank you JoshuaWhitehead

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This novel is one long spoken poem

Hard and beautiful. Raw and poetic, and a vulnerable gift to everyone who reads it.

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Inticing

Well developed story and characters!
A window into the complex life of a two spirit indigenous protagonist living on a reserve and the joys and challenges that shaped their personality

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Raw. Real. Revelatory. Sad. Sassy. Soul trueHuman.

Raw. Real. Revelatory. Sad. Sassy. Soul true. Human. Humble. Hurts transformed become old soul truth.Chapters 51 onward honour grief and memory and identity. in his own voice, an even voice, straigbtforward and humble .... must make his mama and kookum proud.

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Read if you like soft porn

I'm sure this book has a great message overall. I know many people have it a good review. But I don't want to hear explicit sexual details no matter what the message is. At this point in my life I'm just not interested

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Beautiful!

What a wonderful gift this book is. Radically intimate, raw, visceral and vulnerable. It’s portrayal of characters who are deeply hurting and simultaneously bravely living and loving was deeply impactful. The writing and story telling is impeccable!

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