Tanya Talaga's favourite book of 2017 was All We Leave Behind by Carol Off

Happy holidays! CBC Books asked authors to share their favourite Canadian books of 2017. We will be publishing these recommendations throughout December. 

• Why Tanya Talaga wrote a book about the lives and deaths of 7 Indigenous students in Thunder Bay

Tanya Talaga chose All We Leave Behind by Carol Off.

"Carol's book got me from the start, with her opening using a Richard Wagamese quote. From Carol's evolution as a journalist, as someone who parachutes into a country, gets the story and then leaves to her realization that sometimes you just can't turn away is an important message to journalists and to us all. Asad Aryubwal's struggle to do everything humanly possible to both protect his dignity and his family's safety is valiant and heart-wrenching. I was in tears by the end and I think everyone who reads it will be."

• How Carol Off balanced fact and emotion in writing All We Leave Behind

Tanya Talaga is an award-winning investigative journalist for the Toronto Star. Her book Seven Fallen Feathers, about seven Indigenous high school students who died in Thunder Bay, Ont., was a finalist for the 2017 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.