A moving, unflinching exploration of life in Prince Albert on Treaty Six territory, as told through one family's multigenerational story.

Robert Boschman grew up in the living quarters of the King Koin Launderette in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, sandwiched between a residential school and a jail built in the aftermath of the Riel Resistance of 1885. White Coal City is the story of this hard hockey-obsessed white-settler town on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River and Boschman's troubled family who traveled these lands.

Trauma was palpable but never spoken of in the family, and this silence hounded the psychology of its men and boys. Years later, Boschman discovered the reason behind it: the devastating fate of his grandmother, killed by a hit-and-run driver while she was six months pregnant. Her husband, who saw it happen, was plagued by the crime. Their story is gently shared through letters, journal entries, newspaper clippings, and...