To clear her son's name, she has no choice but to follow the tracks leaving the dead man's cabin and head north into the forest and the desolate landscape that lies beyond it...
I have been meaning to read this book for a while, as is the case with so many novels on my shelves... Since I visited Canada myself, both Alberta and Ontario, I have always thought I should read a Canadian novel outside those of the legend that is Margaret Atwood. This book couldn't depict a more raw Canada. Set in 1860s Ontario, Stef Penney describes the impenetrable land, the mysterious indigenous communities, dangerous animals and a brutal murder.
The snow certainly doesn't do anything for shaking Canada's stereotype as a habitable Arctic, but the landscape is really beautifully written, offering some stunning descriptions but without lots of dense paragraphs of description. Penney also creates a really believable rural community with characters you instantly care for. And there are plenty of characters at that... farmer's wives, criminals, magistrates, trackers, foreign tradesmen... Admittedly I got a bit confused at times but, saying that, I liked the community feel to this novel.
It does involve a murder but, for anyone who doesn't like crime books, this is not a crime novel. Although it isn't fantastical in any way, or even really that scary, this novel has a real haunting atmosphere to it. The winter weather and the wolves on the prowl probably helps but it is also just in its general tone. It has a Brokeback Mountain quietness to it but that's not to say there aren't plenty of twists and turns and satisfying link-ups.
I really liked this novel and found it, overall, very calming: 8/10
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