Barkskins : Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2017

Shortlisted for the prestigious Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and now a captivating television series, 'Barkskins' is the magnum opus of Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'The Shipping News' and 'Brokeback Mountain'. This sweeping, audacious novel chronicles the devastating exploitation of the world's forests over three centuries.

In the late 1600s, two destitute Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Indentured to a feudal lord, they become 'barkskins' - woodcutters tasked with clearing the seemingly endless forest. René endures tremendous hardship and is compelled to wed a Mi'kmaw woman, their descendants forever caught between two hostile cultures. The cunning Duquet, however, escapes his servitude to become a fur trader and later establishes a timber empire.

With her trademark acumen, Proulx weaves a tapestry of the descendants of Sel and Duquet across 300 years. Their journeys span North America, Europe, China, and New Zealand, set against a backdrop of brutal conditions, vendettas, accidents, epidemics, indigenous attacks, and cultural obliteration. Time and again, they plunder what they perceive as an inexhaustible resource, leaving their modern-day counterparts grappling with the spectre of ecological catastrophe.

Proulx's unparalleled talent shines in her creation of characters so vivid - in their avarice, lust, vindictiveness, or simple compassion and hope - that readers are utterly captivated. 'Barkskins' stands as Proulx's crowning achievement, a tour de force that masterfully melds historical fact with imaginative prowess, cementing her status as one of America's most formidable literary voices.

Product Information:

Book ISBN:	9780007232017
Book Author:	Annie Proulx
Book Format:	Paperback / softback
Book Imprint:	Fourth Estate Ltd
Book Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Book Dimensions:	198 x 129 x 46 cm
Book Publication Date:	2017-11-04
Book Pagination:	736 pages
Book Weight:	508g