Monkey Beach

Canadian author Eden Robinson’s novel Monkey Beach (2000) is set in the village of Kitamaat in British Columbia, Canada. Kitamaat is the primary community of the Haisla nation, one of the Indigenous Canadian groups known as the First Nations. Monkey Beach tells the story of teenager Lisa Hill, whose brother Jimmy has mysteriously disappeared. In the aftermath of his disappearance, Lisa reflects on memories of her youth. The novel combines elements of mystery and the supernatural as it describes Lisa’s ability to communicate with the dead and connect with the paranormal. With a distinctive narrative style and gripping content, Monkey Beach won the 2001 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for writers from British Columbia. This guide references the Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin, 2000) edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

Monkey Beach is written from Lisa’s first-person perspective. Its action primarily takes places in the past but shifts periodically to the present. Part 1 begins in the present, shortly after Jimmy has disappeared near the village of Namu while on a fishing trip with their Aunt Trudy’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Josh. She reflects on her childhood, including a family trip to Monkey Beach to look for sasquatches.