Monkey Beach is Canadian author Eden Robinson's debut novel. It was published in 2000 by Vintage Canada and tells the story of a girl named Lisamarie Hall who possesses supernatural abilities.
The plot of Monkey Beach unfolds through the eyes of Lisamarie, who is both the protagonist and the narrator. In the present of the novel, Lisamarie is a 19-year-old woman whose brother Jimmy has recently been lost on a fishing trip. As she goes to search for Jimmy on her speedboat, she recalls various memories of her childhood and adolescence, shedding light on her family's intricate history, the development of her spiritual gifts, and many challenges she has faced as a native woman in a Westernized society. These flashbacks are a means for Lisamarie to come to terms with the disappearance of her brother as well as her own tumultuous life.
Monkey Beach was critically acclaimed, receiving the prestigious, annual Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2001. The novel was also shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize as well as the Governor General's Award Literary Award for English-Language Fiction.
