The fiction follow-up to Joseph Boyden’s 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize“winning novel, Through Black Spruce, will be a novel for young adults. Turtle Island, written from the perspective of a young aboriginal teen grappling with gangs, drugs, and violence in his community, is set to appear under Penguin Canada’s Razorbill imprint.

The novel is developed from a short story of the same name published in The Globe & Mail this summer. It marks Boyden’s return to fiction following his dual biography of Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont, published last fall by Penguin Canada.

The Razorbill imprint will launch in Canada next spring. Under Lynne Missen, Penguin’s newly appointed publishing director for young readers, the imprint has signed novels by Mariko Tamaki, Emily Pohl-Weary, Hiromi Goto, Carrie Mac, and Charles de Lint.