Erin Cordell

Renowned author Proulx (Brokeback Mountain) moves into Michener (South Pacific) territory with a vast multigenerational story of the North Woods. The novel spans 1693 to 2013, and follows the indentured servant families of two Frenchmen. For three years as “Barkskins” or woodcutters to a seigneur a land lord in exchange for land in New France now Canada. One, Rene Sel, marries a Mi’kmaw woman, starting a long line of mixed-blood descendants who struggle for the next three centuries against the ugly discrimination and depredations of Europeans and Americans. The other, Charles Duquet, has far bigger plans: he escapes servitude and ends up building a huge timber enterprise, thereby becoming one of those responsible for the depredations. She drives quickly to two large themes, both centering on violence, the one the kind that people do to the land and to each other, the kind that the land itself can exact. Proulx’s story builds in depth and complication without becoming unduly tangled and is always told with the most beautiful language. Another tremendous book from Proulx, sure to find and enthrall many readers.