Red River Girl: A Journey into the Dark Heart of Canada - The International Bestseller

Description

RED RIVER GIRL is the gripping, eye-opening true story of a murder which riveted Canada and became a rallying cry for justice, by award-winning reporter Joanna Jolly. On August 17, 2014, the body of fifteen-year old runaway Tina Fontaine was found in Winnipeg's Red River. A tragedy for Tina's family and community on the Sagkeeng First Nation Reserve, her murder also became a symbol for the racial and gender discrimination which Canada has never properly addressed. Indigenous women in Canada are four times as likely to be murdered or go missing than other Canadian women, and these cases are often left unsolved. But the unusual police detective in charge of Fontaine's case was determined to find her killer. Joanna Jolly chronicles Fontaine's troubled life, from her childhood with her father and great-aunt on the reserve, to her harrowing descent into drug abuse, sexual exploitation, and death. And Jolly tells the incredible story of the meticulous police investigation and headline-grabbing trial that followed the discovery of her body. Tina Fontaine is not just a statistic. And RED RIVER GIRL is not only a riveting true crime story, but a portrait of a community, an expose of inequality in a country we think of as a liberal haven, and a celebration of the indigenous women, community leaders and activists who are fighting back.

Joanna Jolly is an award-winning BBC reporter based in London. She began her journalism career at the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun, moving on from there to freelance in India and Australia before covering the fight for independence in East Timor. Over the past decade, she's worked as a BBC producer and reporter in Jerusalem, South Africa, Brussels, Washington, and India as well as spending two years as the BBC correspondent in Kathmandu, Nepal. During that time Jolly specialized in stories of sexual violence against women. In 2016, she earned a prestigious Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Jolly has won several awards, including the 2007 BBC Onassis Bursary. In 2014, she won the Association of International Broadcaster's best RADIO current affairs documentary award for her in-depth look at the prosecution of rape in India. In 2015, her documentary on missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada won the Amnesty Award for best radio. In 2017, she was awarded a Judges' Special Commendation at the RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction. Red River Girl is her first book.

With exacting detail, BBC reporter Joanna Jolly recounts Tina's sometimes tragic life story, her shocking death, the complex police investigation and the detective determined to find her killer. If you were hooked on the Serial podcast, then you need to pre-order this now. - Red Magazine Joanna Jolly recreates Tina's life and the investigation into her death. It starkly assesses the lack of protection and child services for indigenous children and reveals the sexual exploitation of a community in a country that prides itself on its liberal and supportive values - Stylist This is a really important book to read . . . Jolly's skill is to show that this is a deeply embedded problem . . . But she presents all this detailed information in a way to keep you reading, because she is fully aware behind all the problems there are people - people who are important and deserve considerably more. All intelligent adults should read this book to become aware of the depth of the problem and the need to do more. This might be concentrating on Canada, but similar levels of violence and abuse can develop in communities all over the world if regular and respectful communities are allowed to collapse. - NB Magazine