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The Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill name and logo are registered trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

First paperback edition, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, August 2024. Originally published in hardcover by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill in November 2023.

© 2023 by Michelle Porter. All rights reserved.

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This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Porter, Michelle, [date]-author.

Title: A grandmother begins the story / Michelle Porter.

Description: First edition. | Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2023. | Summary: “The story of the unrivaled desire for healing and the power of familial bonds across five generations of Métis women and the land and bison that surround them”— Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2023022891 | ISBN 9781643755182 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781643755205 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Métis women—Fiction. | LCGFT: Novels.

Classification: LCC PR9199.4.P67545 G73 2023 | DDC 818/.603—dc23/eng/20230807

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023022891

ISBN 978-1-64375-520-5 (ebook)

E3-20240715-PDJ-PC-REV

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Mamé’s afterlife is a fiddle

Dee hears a rumor

Carter negotiates her fee

Geneviève forgets

Mamé and the crookedness of time

Dee fills up on grass

Carter makes room in her schedule

Geneviève curses

Mamé checks on her girls

Dee kicks up dust

Carter regrets her curiosity

Perkins and Lottery in the passenger seat

Dee steps into the light

Carter on dying

Geneviève crosses the river

Where the gates open for Mamé

Dee, in between fences

Carter asks for help with beading

Geneviève and one more goodbye

The grassland speaks to Dee

Carter moves out

Geneviève and the ruins

Afterlife and the temptation of Mamé

Dee, the biggest cow

Geneviève arrives

Dee, walking away

Geneviève takes the elevator

Carter finds a crow’s nest

Geneviève lays a card

Carter drinks tea

Dee asks questions

Perkins and Lottery at the kennel

Afterlife, where Mamé can ask for forgiveness

The grassland sees Dee’s path

Allie texts Carter

Geneviève sees a ghost

Afterlife, where Mamé knows herself

Solin begins a story

Perkins and Lottery hold auditions

Carter lives dangerously

Geneviève plays a jig

Mamé, where time unravels

A grandmother tells about the time before fences

Geneviève seeks refuge from the rain

Carter, dancing

A grandmother finishes the story

Gramma, asking Carter

Velma looks down and there is Geneviève

The grassland witnesses the beginning of a snowstorm

Afterlife, where Mamé’s feet still ache

The grassland sees the weakness in the fence

Geneviève asks about rehab in the spirit world

Mamé, where the bison roam

The grandmothers go looking

Carter, saying yes

Geneviève looks into the fire

Afterlife, where Mamé moves along

Dee answers questions

Carter seals a baggie

Geneviève makes a sign

Mamé’s first journey with the buffalo

The grassland and a thunderstorm

Allie texts again

Geneviève and the trouble with remembering

Mamé and tomorrow

Dee, after the thunderstorm

Carter at the bus station

What Geneviève doesn’t say (to Pam)

What Pam doesn’t say (to Geneviève)

Mamé follows the herd to the river

Dee brings hope along

Carter in the bathroom

Geneviève gets a ride in an ambulance

Mamé, where a rib is broken

Dee catches up to anger

Carter texts her mom from the bus

Geneviève’s elder

Mamé and the magpies in the sky

Tell, the stars, and a grandmother

Carter with the guys

A reading with Norah

Afterlife, where Mamé finds the camp

Solin remembers

Carter enters a garden

Geneviève has a smoke

A hill the shape of a bison’s hump

Allan tears a strip off Carter

Velma curls her hair

Mamé, looking back

Carter, unwritten

Two more readings and an insult

Mamé speaks to Lucie

Solin hears a roar

Carter crosses over

Geneviève, her cane, and a cigarette

Afterlife, where Mamé begins

How to become part earth

Carter’s bio sister texts

Geneviève’s offering

Bison belong here

Carter waits for a bus

What if there’s one last show?

Carter gets an update

Mamé and Lucie struggle

Carter gets a boat

What you leave behind

Carter sees a vulture in the flood

Perkins and Lottery cancel the show

Carter gets to the other side

Getting on a truck

Bets gets a new handler

Perkins and Lottery decide their time isn’t up

Dee is a tag

Carter opens a window

Stepping onto the stage

Gramma Lucie texts Carter a pic

Carter texts Gen

Mamé, finally

Acknowledgments

Discover More

About the Author

Also by Michelle Porter

Praise for "A Grandmother Begins the Story"

Questions for Discussion

Navigation

Cover

Contents

Start of Frontmatter

Copyright Page

Dedication

Also by Michelle Porter

Mamé’s afterlife is a fiddle

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Page List

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