Any Known Blood

Any Known Blood
by Lawrence Hill  

Langston Cane V is a thirty-eight year old divorced man who sets on a journey of self-discovery by tracing his roots back for five generations. After losing his job for sabotaging a government official’s speech, Cane embarks on a quest to uncover his family’s history. What he finds in his past not only brings him pride to carry on the tradition of the family name, but it helps him to develop his own sense of self.


Langston begins his search with family documents from his aunt’s house and slowly puts together the pieces of his genealogical puzzle. He discovers new details of his own parent’s struggle against racism as an interracial couple in 1950. After moving to Canada and settling in Oakville during the beginning of their marriage, Langston’s father opened his own medical practice while becoming a nationally recognized civil rights activist. The story of the Langston Canes travels back in time to the Langston Cane I who was thought to be a hero in John Brown’s famous anti-slavery raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia. Although Langston V had heard many stories over the years about his family, he was surprised to learn that his long line of relatives had a history of constant battle for their rights and dignity.

Any Known Blood examines the lives of five generations of men named Langston Cane and follows their lives over the changing social times. Lawrence Hill creates a fascinating story of prejudice, segregation and slavery without making it seem like a lecture. The characters in the book are loosely based on Hill’s own family as he is the son of a black father and a white mother who came to Canada in 1953. Lawrence Hill says that he was greatly influence by his parents’ work in the human rights movement in Canada. This is reflected in his all of his writing which usually integrates a theme of identity and belonging. Although a work in fiction, Hill bases his novels on historical fact, and attempts to stay true to the history of our nation. Some of his other books include The Book of Negroes (2007), Black berry, sweet juice (2001), and Some Great Thing (2009).

Hill’s novel highlights the appeal of genealogy research that has significantly gained popularity in the past few decades. The technology available to aid people who are interested in their past has transformed the way genealogists research their ancestral past. Tools such as ancestry.ca and ourroots.ca make this information available at a touch of a button. The Canadian government also has interesting online tools to look at your family’s history, such as Canada at War which contains memorials for all of the Canadian soldiers that were killed since World War I.

The City of Kawartha Lakes Library provides access to genealogical materials such as ancestry.com, findmypast.co.uk and ourroots.ca. Additionally, the library staff in the Reference Department are available to assist you with your research if you have any questions.