Barkskins: A Novel

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Synopsis

Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Best Novel
A New York Times Notable Book
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year


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 wood-cutters—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.

“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.’”

Chapters

  • Barkskins 01 Title

    Duration: 48s
  • Barkskins 02 Quotes

    Duration: 01min
  • Barkskins 03 Part1Ch1

    Duration: 30min
  • Barkskins 04 Ch2

    Duration: 17min
  • Barkskins 05 Ch3

    Duration: 14min
  • Barkskins 06 Ch4

    Duration: 28min
  • Barkskins 07 Ch5

    Duration: 14min
  • Barkskins 08 Ch6

    Duration: 11min
  • Barkskins 09 Ch7

    Duration: 17min
  • Barkskins 10 Part2Ch8

    Duration: 16min
  • Barkskins 11 Ch9

    Duration: 10min
  • Barkskins 12 Ch10

    Duration: 08min
  • Barkskins 13 Ch11

    Duration: 10min
  • Barkskins 14 Ch12

    Duration: 16min
  • Barkskins 15 Ch13

    Duration: 33min
  • Barkskins 16 Ch14

    Duration: 05min
  • Barkskins 17 Ch15

    Duration: 14min
  • Barkskins 18 Ch16

    Duration: 10min
  • Barkskins 19 Ch17

    Duration: 06min
  • Barkskins 20 Ch18

    Duration: 07min
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