Barkskins

ByAnnie Proulx

Release Date: 2016-06-14
Genre: Historical Fiction

Score: 4

From 304 Ratings

Description

Now a mini-series on National Geographic!
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year & a New York Times Notable Book

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Shipping News and “Brokeback Mountain” comes the New York Times bestselling epic about the demise of the world’s forests.

“Barkskins is grand entertainment in the tradition of Dickens and Tolstoy…the crowning achievement of Annie Proulx’s distinguished career, but also perhaps the greatest environmental novel ever written” —San Francisco Chronicle

In the late seventeenth century two young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord for three years in exchange for land, they become woodcutters—barkskins. René suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a native woman and their descendants live trapped between two cultures. But Duquet runs away, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business.

Annie Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years—their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand—the revenge of rivals, accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, and cultural annihilation. Over and over, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse and the consequences of environmental exploitation and colonialism.

“A stunning, bracing, full-tilt ride through three hundred years of US and Canadian history…with the type of full-immersion plot that keeps you curled in your chair, reluctant to stop reading” (Elle), Barkskins showcases Proulx’s inimitable genius of creating characters who are so vivid that we follow them with fierce attention.

“This is Proulx at the height of her powers as an irreplaceable American voice” (Entertainment Weekly, Grade A), and Barkskins “is an awesome monument of a book” (The Washington Post)—“the masterpiece she was meant to write” (The Boston Globe). As Anthony Doerr says, “This magnificent novel possesses the dark humor of The Shipping News and the social awareness of ‘Brokeback Mountain.’”

Reviews

The Barkskins
5
By AugustIV
Novels are fiction, we’ve all been told. Yet great novels are truth. This is a great novel.
Beautiful
4
By mhazelton219
It’s sad and informative and explains a history through the eyes of several groups that impacted North American forests, sending the reader through different worlds at different periods. It touches anyone who cares about the environment in a way few other stories do.
Disappointing
2
By tomi2much
I could hardly wait to read this book. I usually really like her books. It really bogged in places. It left me looking for point at which the families would connect, personally, not through business and remain unknown to each other. The topic was so depressing in itself it would have been nice if literally every character in the book wouldn’t have suffered personal tragedy. It was tough to finish.
Barkskins
3
By candywentworth
Too slow in parts so book doesn’t flow properly. Good in some parts very interesting then it becomes sluggish.
Very good until the last chapter
4
By Cut wood
Very good. Interesting. But the last chapter was odd and preachy.
Thought provoking historical fiction
4
By Puggleowner
Interesting history of Canadian/American culture 300 year ago to the present.
Astounding!!!
5
By Brunetta4u
I am in awe! Barkskins opens your eyes-wide- as it traces the beginning of the destruction of North America, it's land, it's people and takes you on a history lesson that reaches all corners of this earth. Greed and entitlement have destroyed more than we can fathom. This book begs the question, "Is it too late?"