by Chyana Marie Sage '23
Published by House of Anansi (2025)
In her deeply affecting memoir, Soft as Bones, Chyana Marie Sage shares the pain of growing up with her father: a crack dealer who went to prison for molesting her older sister. She details the shame and guilt she carried for years after her family’s trauma as she went from one dysfunctional relationship to another, from one illegal drug to another. In revisiting her family’s history and weaving in the perspectives of her mother and sisters, 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 Scoops programs.