A white schoolteacher serving an isolated Canadian Indigenous community realizes she is the one who needs an education in the moving, atmospheric The Morning Bell Brings the Broken Hearted by Jennifer Manuel (The Heaviness of Things that Float). Molleigh, a recently divorced teacher, comes to the tiny Nuu-chah-nulth town of Tawakin on Vancouver Island to teach elementary school. She deems the village whimsical--with "houses the colours of blue jays and daffodils and ferns, woven into the rainforest"--but her dreams of a classroom filled with curiosity and joy soon melt into disillusionment. The forest around the village feels ominous. Her students struggle with their lessons, and she struggles to connect with them, particularly a foul-mouthed girl named Hannah. She wonders after only a month if she's in the wrong place. Then a child leads Molleigh to a traditionally forbidden island, and she finds herself caught in a web of mystery and secrets. Giant stones appear in her road without explanation. A potentially dangerous story circulates among the children. Molleigh is left wondering if her misstep started the trouble, and whether she should confess to her transgression or leave it buried with her own dark secret.
Manuel's prose, as lush as a rain forest, blooms and possesses an immediacy that speaks to her own history as an educator in Indigenous communities. The story flips the script of a white teacher inspiring impoverished, othered students, instead prioritizing community and tradition. This beautiful, nuanced exploration of crossing a cultural divide echoes with respect and hope. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads