Frank Christopher Busch wrote Grey Eyes, his debut novel, in response to what he heard repeatedly in his interviews with indigenous survivors of Canada’s residential schools: “I just want my culture back.” His story opens with the rare birth of a Grey-Eyed boy in the Nehiyawak village of Nisichawayasihk (situated in what is today Northern Manitoba). The Nehiyawak celebrate the birth, as a person with grey eyes will possess Grey-Eyed magic and will protect the village from the sinister Red-Eyes. The prose style is plain and simple and one wonders about the historical accuracy of the dialogue, but neither of these is a great drawback in what is at once an intricate portrait of pre-contact life and a suspenseful page-turner that builds towards a dramatic and moving finish. As a novel it is a success – one that may benefit, and certainly entertain, indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians both.
— Globe and Mail, Sept. 12, 2014
