Red Deerians have cast their votes and chosen the novel Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr as the 2025 Red Deer Reads winner.
It’s Red Deer Public Library’s seventh city-wide book initiative since 2015 to bring residents together through a shared reading experience, and connect through conversations about a book, its author, and the book’s themes and ideas.
Prairie Edge, which follows the efforts of two distant Métis cousins to set a herd of bison free in downtown Edmonton, is described as a “gripping, darkly funny caper and a raw reckoning with the wounds that persist across generations.”
The crime thriller “doubles as a sharp critique of modern activism and challenges readers to consider what ‘Land Back’ might really look like.”
Prairie Edge was shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize, a finalist for the 2024 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize, and one of CBC’s Best Canadian Fiction of 2024.
Prairie Edge was one of the three books shortlisted for Red Deer Reads. The book was up against The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed, and We Are Already Ghosts by Kit Dobson. Book club discussions were held for each title before the vote was held.
Author Conor Kerr, a Métis/Ukrainian writer living in Edmonton, will be the featured guest at a Red Deer Reads event on Oct. 25, from 4 to 6 p.m., at the library’s downtown branch. Register to save a seat at rdpl.org/reddeerreads.
The library will also post opportunities on social media to win VIP seating at the event, and free copies of Prairie Edge.
Prairie Edge is available to borrow at Red Deer Public Library through eBook, eAudioBook, and in print.