For Joshua

An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son

By: Richard Wagamese

Narrated by: Craig Lauzon

The heartfelt memoir from one of Canada's most beloved writers.

Staring the modern world in the eye, Richard Wagamese confronts its snares and perils. He sees people coveting without knowing why, looking for roots without understanding what constitutes home, searching for acceptance without extending reciprocal respect, and longing for love without knowing how to offer it.

He sees this because he lived it.

For Joshua is Wagamese's love letter to his estranged son. Ojibway tradition calls for fathers to walk their children through the world and teach them their place in it. To teach them they belong. In this intimate memoir, Wagamese describes his own tumultuous journey - though childhood trauma, racism, and substance abuse - and his fight to emerge stronger. His road to self-knowledge has been long and treacherous, but this has furnished him, if not with a complete set of answers, then at least with a profound understanding of the questions. Hoping to impart his newfound understanding of the world onto his beloved son, Wagamese shares his search for happiness and the choices he has made to open himself up to it.

©2003 Richard Wagamese (P)2019 Anchor Canada

Critic reviews

“[For Joshua] is revealing, open, and tragic. It is also a remarkably touching and well-written journey.” (The Globe and Mail)

“I hope that when Joshua does eventually read this book, he has the maturity to appreciate his father’s act of bravery, and to learn from it. For the rest of us, For Joshua is a fascinating and moving portrayal of one man’s search for his heritage, his true place in the world, and in the process, his discovery of himself.” (Hamilton Spectator)

"Graceful and reverberating... A harrowing life story but also a ceremony, a gathering of traditional knowledge, and a love letter across the generations, For Joshua is a book we need, a book we can all treasure. Every page is infused with such tenderness and emotional intensity that I was shocked again and again with the thought: this is the true strength and reach and burden of love." (Warren Cariou, author of Lake of the Prairies)

amazing and heartbreaking story

As an Indigenous woman who has loved men like Richard, this book really spoke to me. I have recommended it to many of the Native men in my life.