Bookseller Created
Indigenous Stories
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores!
Start gifting
Bookseller pick
Send as gift
Add to Wish List
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop small, give big!
With credit bundles, you choose the number of credits and your recipient picks their audiobooks—all in support of local bookstores.
Start gifting
Limited-time offer
Get two free audiobooks!
Now’s a great time to shop indie. When you start a new one credit per month membership supporting local bookstores with promo code SWITCH, we’ll give you two bonus audiobook credits at sign-up.
Sign up todayMotorcycles & Sweetgrass
Narrator
Drew Hayden Taylor
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn more
Length
10 hours 21 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“This is a sweet story read by the author. It's basically a tall tale of how a small Anishnawbe (indigenous Canadian) town is turned upside down by the arrival of a handsome stranger who may be the living incarnation of the trickster god, Nanabush. This was such a loving satire of the townsfolk of Otter Lake, at once both hilarious and serious. I loved it. ”
— Karrie • Vroman's Bookstore
A story of magic, family, a mysterious stranger . . . and a band of marauding raccoons.
Otter Lake is a sleepy Anishnawbe community where little happens. Until the day a handsome stranger pulls up astride a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle – and turns Otter Lake completely upside down. Maggie, the Reserve’s chief, is swept off her feet, but Virgil, her teenage son, is less than enchanted. Suspicious of the stranger’s intentions, he teams up with his uncle Wayne – a master of aboriginal martial arts – to drive the stranger from the Reserve. And it turns out that the raccoons are willing to lend a hand.
DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR is an Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations and has worn many hats in his literary career, including performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; lecturing at the British Museum on the films of Sherman Alexie; and being Artistic Director of Canada's premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He is an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist, a short-story writer, a novelist, a television scriptwriter, and has worked on numerous documentaries exploring the Native experience. In recent years, he has proudly served as the Writer-in-Residence at various universities and theatre companies across Canada.
DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR is an Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations and has worn many hats in his literary career, including performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; lecturing at the British Museum on the films of Sherman Alexie; and being Artistic Director of Canada's premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He is an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist, a short-story writer, a novelist, a television scriptwriter, and has worked on numerous documentaries exploring the Native experience. In recent years, he has proudly served as the Writer-in-Residence at various universities and theatre companies across Canada.
Featured in these playlists...
Reviews
NATIONAL BESTSELLERFINALIST 2013–2014 – First Nations Communities Read
“A near-perfect debut, a masterful mythic-comedy balancing contemporary issues and realities with magic and history. . . . Motorcycles & Sweetgrass is a trickster story, but it’s also a fundamentally human account of individuals and of a people struggling to find a place for themselves in the world. . . . A broad, bawdy, raucous, deeply felt and utterly involving narrative, a genuine pleasure to read. . . . Motorcycles & Sweetgrass positively crackles with life, love and magic. What more can you ask of a book?” —Robert J. Wiersema, Edmonton Journal
“A winning comedy.” —The Globe and Mail
“Motorcycles & Sweetgrass may be concerned with aboriginal community politics, identity, mythology and intergenerational legacies, but it reads like a romp. . . . Yet the book’s real strength is its underlying account of a community struggling to weave an increasingly abstract traditional past with some kind of meaningful future.” —Toronto Star
“Drew Hayden Taylor’s got no qualms about poking fun at his Native roots, and that’s what makes Motorcycles & Sweetgrass such a pleasure. It’s playful yet soulful, with a narrative that keeps those pages turning. . . . A fun, rollicking book, and Taylor’s voice is fresh and unique.” —NOW (Toronto)
“Taylor brings a modern twist to ancient native folklore. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass is a charming story about the importance of balance and belief—and a little bit of magic—in everyone’s life.” —Quill & Quire
“Fast-paced, uproariously funny and genuinely thrilling. Drew Hayden Taylor is one of Canada’s finest and funniest writers." —Ian Ferguson, author of Village of the Small Houses
“Funny, heartfelt, hopeful and illuminating. Motorcycles & Sweetgrass made me laugh and made me think, sometimes in the same sentence. Drew Hayden Taylor is a master storyteller.” —Terry Fallis, author of The Best Laid Plans
“Drew Hayden Taylor has woven an epic tale of magic, mystery and charm for the world to discover in Motorcycles & Sweetgrass. This is a novel to savor. A complete delight!” —Richard Van Camp, author of The Moon of Letting Go and The Lesser Blessed Expand reviews
Give audiobooks, support local bookstores!
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks