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INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A CBC Best Book of 2025
Finalist, Foreword INDIES 2025 Book of the Year
A poetic memoir as intricately woven as a dreamcatcher about overcoming the pain of generational trauma with the power of traditional healing
In candid, incisive, and delicate prose, Chyana Marie Sage shares the pain of growing up with her father, a crack dealer who went to prison for molesting her older sister. In revisiting her family’s history, Chyana examines the legacy of generational abuse, which began with her father’s father, who was forcibly removed from his family by the residential schools and Sixties Scoop programs. Yet hers is also a story of hope, as it was the traditions of her people that saved her life, healing one small piece in the mosaic that makes up the dark past of colonialism shared by Indigenous people throughout Turtle Island.
“Gritty yet lyrical … Soft as Bones is a startling, powerful memoir about surviving family trauma and First Nations perseverance.” — Foreword, STARRED review
“[Sage] toggles effortlessly between the roles of diarist, poet, and journalist, linking her personal history to a pattern of intergenerational violence, all without snuffing out hope for healing. Readers will be as inspired as they are horrified.” — Publishers Weekly
“Tenderly and candidly explores the legacies of Native boarding schools, colonialism, and violence to disrupt intergenerational trauma in search of hope and healing.” — Ms. Magazine
"Maps the pain of generational trauma — and the journey to healing." —HuffPost
"A deliberate act of admirable imagination and creativity … A life worth living. And reading about. And rereading.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Wisely, Sage takes us with her on a path of understanding the legacy she has inherited—before making space for her own future.” — Literary Hub
“With purpose, [Chyana Marie Sage] guides herself and her readers out of a labyrinth of confusion, manipulation, and darkness and into ‘this story for all of us.’”– Literary Review of Canada
“Essential reading.” — Winnipeg Free Press