Urbane

by Anna Marie Sewell

"I should have punched her in the face." With these words, Hazel's back. Having survived a stint as a werewolf's accomplice on a mission of vengeance and redemption, Amiskwaciy's notoriously unknown detective and self-professed asshole Hazel LeSage returns. The aftermath of violence has left Hazel with questions, wounds and unexpected friends including Shanaya Bhattacharya, a most unusual lawyer whose thirst for wrongs to right leads her and Hazel into the claws of a conspiracy. Hazel and Shanaya set out to find Hazel's ex-husband and renegotiate the terms of their divorce, in which Hazel unjustly lost her land. They stumble into a deadly conspiracy entangling the rural lands surrounding their home city of Amiskwaciy. Taking it on will force Hazel to come to terms with her past; surviving will mean accepting some most unexpected allies.Meanwhile in Amiskwaciy, Hazel's nephew Devin, shaken to the core by the violent death of his childhood friend, has gone to ground in an unlikely lair. To emerge whole, he must get to grips with the primal wildness of his soul and begin to become a man of worth on his own terms. Welcome back to Amiskwaciy, where the mythic has its feet up on your coffee table, and what you see might not be all you get. Urbane is the sequel to Humane, Anna Marie Sewell's best-selling 2020 first novel from Stonehouse Publishing.

Genres: Indigenous

288 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2023

About the author

Anna Marie Sewell is an Edmonton writer who performs theatre, prose and song.
She writes from the intersection of cultures, languages, ways of life, beliefs; from the silence between two rivers.

Reviews

[Sandra Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best way to read Anna Marie Sewell’s new novel, Urbane, is to start by reading her first novel, Humane. In that bestselling book, you’ll meet Hazel LeSage, a wiry, unlicensed private investigator trying to solve the murder of an Indigenous girl. In Urbane, Hazel is on a mission to find her ex and reclaim the land she lost in their divorce. Together with her companion, a lawyer bent on righting wrongs, Hazel stumbles into a conspiracy that will keep you reading late into the night. But you don’t merely read this excellent book; you inhabit it, hearing the distinct voices of all the characters and seeing the world through their eyes. You’ll emerge with your own eyes open wider.

[Danika Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read Humane, I wasn’t quite ready for the story to be over. Luckily, I got my wish! In Humane, Anna Marie Sewell revisits Hazel LeSage and embarks on a brand new journey: For Hazel to regain the land she lost in her divorce. Written in the same multi-faceted, poetic style as her debut, Urbane blends indigenous perspectives with the papal apology for Residential schools, shape-shifters, domestic abuse, and Hazel’s troubled past. Through the intersection of faceted snapshots of past and present, Sewell creates a beautiful, contemporary fable for today’s complex world.

[S. Portico Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Language is more than a collection of sounds. Language is a bridge between the living and the dead and our relationship to time. And writing, in a book like Urbane, is more than a casual arrangement of the alphabet. Sewell's writing creates a new landscape where sounds are carving monuments in the wind. This is the kind of reading I'll make time for.

[Rupert Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

You can tell the author is a poet lol

[Shinyfluff · Rating 5 out of 5]

another wonderful poetic magical realist tale of shape-shifters, Indigenous truths and struggles, human trafficking, grief, art and bravery

[Anthony Bidulka · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…shapeshifters-werewolves and vampires and bearwalkers oh my…” wonderfully sums up this adventurous novel by Anna Marie Sewell, brimming with unexpected characters, disturbing truths, earthy charisma and belly-shaking humour. This is a tale of strength, unusual alliances and a quest for that sweet spot beyond acceptance, beyond survival.