Exceptional

By Robin Read

Come the essential uprising, whose side will you be on?

Outraged by the witness video, Cam Borlaug joins the swelling protest at a police station on Lake Street in Minneapolis. Amidst tear gas and rubber bullets, she struggles to stay on her feet after a flash grenade explodes nearby. A firm hand pulls her out of the miasma and splashes milk into burning eyes--another baptism under fire by BLM leader Maya Fortier. Fellow activists call her Cahmie-kaze after she bolts past baton-wielding cops and shoulders a fallen comrade to safety. Maya offers her a room in Movement House, where she and the brilliant autist Rayna come to share puppy chow, and a bed, by summer's end.

That fall, Cam puts eight boogaloos in their place after they destroy an Extinction Rebellion protest float. Soon an enterprising Ojibwe named Namid turns her into a climate-movement rock star. On Indigenous Peoples' Day, she and her Lightship Greta 2.0 crew brave heavy rains and a right-wing blockade during their ten-mile trek to the state capitol in St. Paul. Even if they do make it, there's no guarantee the governor will heed their call to cancel the tar-sands pipeline project up north.

Will this daring protest-or any other--make a difference? Cam's armada of activists aim to find out.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0578341190
• ISBN13: 9780578341194
• Release Date: January 2022
• Publisher: Close Embraces
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"