Set in the Saskatchewan prairies during the Depression, Why Shoot the Teacher is the Canadian classic that tells the story of a young man’s first collision with reality: an ill-paid teaching assignment in an isolated country school. This autobiographical novel is riotous, grim, candid, and infinitely entertaining. While it is perhaps Braithwaite’s best-loved book, it is also a vivid evocation of the Dust Bowl desolation wrought by the “Dirty Thirties” on the Saskatchewan Prairies, the ordeal of youth among a people bereft of pity and charity, and the human compassion that adds warmth and poignancy to an unforgettable story.