Brian Thomas Isaac’s book, All the Quiet Places, is a 2022 Canada Reads longlisted book, and it has earned a place on the 2022 Amazon Canada First Novel Award shortlist. Told with skillful imagery, the reader is transported to the 1950s in the BC Okanagan. Told from the perspective of Eddie Toma, an Indigenous (Syílx) boy, Isaac explores one family’s experiences of colonialism, residential school legacy, and the assimilating practices of education and life in a small community. Heartbreaking and raw, the ending of this book is both haunting and vivid.

Contributor Affiliation: Brian Thomas Isaac (Syílx)
Bibliography: No
Index: No

Source: Books BC - BC Books for Schools & Indigenous Books for Schools

Brian Thomas Isaac was born in 1950 on the Okanagan Indian Reserve, situated in south central British Columbia. As a teenager he had a short career riding bulls in local rodeos until common sense steered him away, then went on to work in the Northern Alberta oil fields and retired as a bricklayer. Writing is something he has done all of his life. A lover of sports, Brian has coached minor hockey and played slow-pitch, and when he’s not spending time with his three grandchildren you can find him on the golf course. His bestselling debut, All the Quiet Places, is longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, won an Indigenous Voices Award, was a finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, and named an Indigo Best Book of the Year. He lives with his wife in the Salmon River Valley near Falkland, BC.

Brian Thomas Isaac's profile page

• Long-listed, Canada Reads
• Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction
• Short-listed, Amazon Canada First Novel Award
• Long-listed, Scotiabank Giller Prize
• Winner, Indigenous Voices Award

Finalist for the 2022 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction
Longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Winner of the 2022 Indigenous Voices Awards' Published Prose in English Prize
Shortlisted for the 2022 Amazon Canada First Novel Award
Longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2022
Longlisted for First Nations Community Reads 2022
An Indigo Top 100 Book of 2021
An Indigo Top 10 Best Canadian Fiction Book of 2021

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"All the Quiet Places is a haunting coming-of-age story. The power of Isaac’s vision of young Eddie Toma growing up on an Okanagan reserve in the 1950s is the novel’s unflinching gaze, meticulous detailing and fierce attachment to family, land and love. Every line is so carefully curated and the dialogue was sharp." —Indigenous Voices Awards

"I feel that Brian Thomas Isaac has earned every single word, every single sentence, every single line. There's so much hilarity in here. There's so much wisdom, there's so much wit . . . It's really a story of triumph. My goodness, what a journey this book takes you on . . . I think the best literature haunts you. Years later, I'm going to be thinking about this book." —Richard Van Camp, CBC's Unreserved

“A debut like no other . . . beautifully written . . . [Isaac has] a tremendous attention to detail.” —Carol Off, CBC’s As it Happens

"Equal parts enchanting and agonizing, All the Quiet Places is an exceptional debut that not only transports the reader but also transforms them." —Quill & Quire

All the Quiet Places, meanwhile, is primarily a tale about people. The forces that shape their lives are evoked with the same clarity as the snowberry bushes and beaver dams, the Christmas concerts and smoky pool halls. The result is a heartfelt and absorbing work of art." —Literary Review of Canada

"Isaac's unadorned prose is powerful and direct... All the Quiet Places tells a moving tale of marginalization, loss and neglect."—Fiddlehead

"First-time novelist Isaac has penned a powerfully emotional novel that captures the realities of life on a Reserve at mid-20th-century." —Historical Novels Review

"The writing is disarming yet unsentimental, never didactic or seething with an agenda; a masterful example of showing not telling and of staying true and consistent with the always tricky child's point of view." —BC BookWorld

“Every single word advances the story. Each sentence presents the reader with vivid images that are so real, so familiar.” —Senk’lip News, newsletter of the Okanagan Indian Band

"Beautifully crafted coming-of-age story..." —Hamilton Review

"What a welcome debut. Young Eddie Toma's passage through the truly ugly parts of this world is met, like an antidote, or perhaps a compensation, by his remarkable awareness of its beauty. This is a writer who understands youth, and how to tell a story." —Gil Adamson is the winner of the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for Ridgerunner

"All the Quiet Places is a deftly crafted, evocative story about the trials of growing up Indigenous. Brian Thomas Isaac's characters are complex, relatable, and overall, beautifully human." —Waubgeshig Rice is the bestselling author of Moon of the Crusted Snow

"All the Quiet Places is the kind of novel that works its way into your soul. Essentially, it's a tale of childhood, all the wonders and tragedies, that befall a young boy on an Okanagan Reserve in the middle of the last century. Familiar, yet unique, Eddie's story will captivate the reader. The best compliment I could bestow on this book is. . . I wish it was one or two chapters longer. I wanted more." —Drew Hayden Taylor is from the Curve Lake First Nation and is the author of many books including Chasing Painted Horses

"On par with the brilliance of James Welch's Winter in The Blood and Ruby Slipperjack's Little Voice, Brian Thomas Isaac has given us a startling read that'll live wire your soul and haunt you for a good long while. Pure brilliance. Wow." —Richard Van Camp is the author of The Lesser Blessed and Moccasin Square Gardens