Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Sanaaq

By: Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, Bernard Saladin d'Anglure - introduction
Narrated by: Tiffany Ayalik
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £13.99

Buy Now for £13.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Sanaaq is an intimate story of an Inuit family negotiating the changes brought into their community by the coming of the qallunaat, the white people, in the mid-19th century. Composed in 48 episodes, it recounts the daily life of Sanaaq, a strong and outspoken young widow, her daughter Qumaq, and their small semi-nomadic community in northern Quebec. Here they live their lives hunting seal, repairing their kayak, and gathering mussels under blue sea ice before the tide comes in. These are ordinary extraordinary lives: marriages are made and unmade, children are born and named, violence appears in the form of a fearful husband or a hungry polar bear. Here the spirit world is alive and relations with non-humans are never taken lightly. And under it all, the growing intrusion of the qallunaat and the battle for souls between the Catholic and Anglican missionaries threatens to forever change the way of life of Sanaaq and her young family.

©2014 Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk (P)2021 University of Manitoba Press
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

To Build a Fire and Other Stories cover art
The Game of Silence cover art
Midwinter cover art
Jack London: The Short Stories cover art
A Woman of the People cover art
Bonesetter 1 -cast out- (Bonesetter series) cover art
Return cover art
The Ice Whisperers cover art
Moctu and the Mammoth People cover art
Sea Paths cover art
Australian Mythology cover art
The Dead Wander in the Desert cover art
Alaska Challenge cover art
Winter of the Owl cover art
Antediluvian cover art
The Liars cover art

Critic reviews

“Despite being a figure of great literary and cultural importance, Mitiarjuk and her work are almost entirely unknown in English-speaking Canada.... Sanaaq may be read as an ethnographic or historical document, but to do so would be to miss the skill and complexity of the storytelling. The novel is a creative and critical intervention into the process of representing Inuit experience.” (Keavy Martin, Studies in Canadian Literature)

“This simply told tale captures the stark and sometimes brutal reality of life in the Far North.” (Monique Polak, Montreal Gazette)

“Sanaaq begins abruptly and ends with a spiritual release, and everything in between carries the reader along the life journey of a small community tangling with the paradoxes, juxtapositions, and day-to-day realities of northern colonialism while also re-affirming the livelihoods and knowledge that people use to assert local ways of knowing upon colonial actors. This novel, now available in English, is important reading for anyone wishing to better understand the trajectories and ironies of mid-twentieth century state projects to furnish 'welfare' to Canada’s northern peoples, and to understand how Inuit actors approached these new realities.” (Zoe Todd, University of Aberdeen, The Goose)

What listeners say about Sanaaq

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

dive into a new culture

it's was fascinating reading about the Inuit culture in their own words, sanaaq is an easy to follow story as it is broken down into small episodes in each chapters so great if you don't always have alot of time to listen to the story in one go.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!