Let Us Be Trueby Erna BuffiePublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Sally Meadows$24.99 ISBN 9781998273065 As an award-winning documentary filmmaker, Erna Buffie has put her strengths of visual thinking and stellar storytelling to excellent use in her recently re-released debut novel Let Us Be True. Originally published by Coteau Books in 2015 and a finalist for both the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book at the 2016 Manitoba Book Awards, the book was re-published by Shadowpaw Press in 2024 for a whole new generation of readers to devour. This sweeping story, which unfolds over several generations with a myriad of twists and turns, is told from various viewpoints that allow readers to get an intimate portrait of each deeply flawed character. From the grit of the Great Depression to the battlefields of WWII to mid-century and turn-of-the-century life on the Prairies, Buffie’s descriptive mastery–along with her historical knowledge–immerses the reader into each compelling but often painful scene. Like a tragic accident we can’t pull our eyes away from while passing it on a highway, Buffie has crafted a page turner that is hard to put down, employing portents that leave the reader…

Let Us Be True by Erna Buffie Published by Coteau Books Review by Shelley A. Leedahl $19.95 ISBN 9-781550-506358 The unceasing mystery of “family” is at the heart of many a novel, and in Let Us Be True, Manitoba-based Erna Buffie employs a variety of characters to explore this complex subject across generations. When one considers how we often hurt those closest to us-including our kin-it’s easy to question whether blood is indeed thicker than water. Buffie kicks this novel off on a WW2 battlefield. Henry’s a young soldier who doesn’t regret the death of his hometown comrade, as it frees up that soldier’s girl. He knows that Pearl “won’t be an easy woman to love, but he can’t think of anything else he would rather do.” In the chapters that follow-and through the voices of her two adult daughters and others-we learn that Henry pegged it: foul-mouthed, sour, and seemingly heartless, Pearl’s a difficult woman to like, let alone love. In chapter two we meet the force that is Pearl Calder. Now seventy-four, she’s clearing out anything extraneous after Henry’s death, including items others might keep for sentimental reasons. Good details here help us understand these characters, ie: Henry…