The Aftermath

The 30-30 Winchester rifle Laurel Long held in her hands belonged to her father before he died. When she fired the gun in the kitchen of her family cabin one night in 1993, she was aiming at Rick, her mother’s violent boyfriend. At fourteen, Laurel was only trying to save Maxine’s life, and she did; Maxine recovered from Rick’s abuse at a local hospital where, months later, she gave birth to his daughter, Braya.

The action of Shelly Kawaja’s first novel, The Raw Light of Morning, takes place along the west coast of Newfoundland, an island she calls “as harsh as it is kind.” Following Braya’s birth, Laurel’s family relocates to the nearby town of Stephenville, where they rent an affordable housing unit in a ten-plex nicknamed “the Crown.” Laurel offers two pieces of information about her new home: first, that everyone “knew that living in the Crown meant being on welfare”...