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Barkskins: Longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2017 Kindle Edition
LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2017
NOW A MAJOR TELEVISION SERIES
From Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking down of the world’s forests.
In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a “seigneur,” 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 Mi’kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. 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, under stunningly brutal conditions; the revenge of rivals; accidents; pestilence; Indian attacks; and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.
Proulx’s inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid – in their greed, lust, vengefulness, or their simple compassion and hope – that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable and compelling American writers, and Barkskins is her greatest novel, a magnificent marriage of history and imagination.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFourth Estate
- Publication date14 Jun. 2016
- File size2.7 MB
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Review
‘An ambitious novel of extraordinary power that deserves to win the biggest literary prizes and confirms Proulx as a more gifted writer than many of those deemed “great American Novelists” ***** Sunday Express
‘Magnificent … might be her best book yet’ Anthony Doerr
‘Wonderful … A huge and brilliant novel, which takes us back to the uncompromising splendour of the natural world, and affirms Proulx’s reputation as one of the greatest and toughest prose stylists writing today’ TLS
‘Truly compelling … I quickly devoured it … Barkskins stays with you’ Stylist
‘An enthralling story … Forest ecology, indigenous culture, sea voyages, Dutch culture, colonial and Maori culture, the logging industry: all these subjects and many more are revealed through the adventures of her characters’ New Statesman
‘Proulx’s commanding epic about the annihilation of our forests is nothing less than a sylvan Moby-Dick … Proulx’s commanding, perspective-altering epic will be momentous’ Booklist
‘Many of the fine qualities we have come to look for and expect in Proulx’s writing are in evidence in Barkskins. There is comedy, grotesquery and quirkiness mixed in with startling moments of sadness and suffering … This is a big, ambitious novel that offers a new and cleverly indirect way of thinking about American history’ Financial Times
‘The pacing of her narrative, with each generation reflecting the further depredations of man against nature, its impact on the indigenous population and the twists and turns of colonial power, delivers a slowly gathering power, accented with the dread of irrevocable change’ Guardian, Book of The Week
‘Such is the magnetism of Proulx’s narrative that there’s no resisting her thundering cascade of stories’ Washington Post
‘Deeply rewarding’ Good Housekeeping
From the Author
From the Inside Flap
In the late seventeenth century two illiterate woodsmen, Rene Sel and Charles Duquet, make their way from Northern France to New France to seek a living. Bound to a feudal lord, a "seigneur," for three years in exchange for land, they suffer extraordinary hardship, always in awe of the forest they are charged with clearing, sometimes brimming with dreams of its commercial potential. Rene marries an Indian healer, and they have children, mixing the blood of two cultures. Duquet travels the globe and back, starting a logging company that will prosper for generations. Proulx tells the stories of the children, grandchildren, and descendants of these two lineages, the Sels and the Duquets, as well as the descendants of their allies and foes, as they travel back to Europe, to China, to New England, always in quest of a livelihood or a fortune, or fleeing stunningly brutal conditions-accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, the revenge of rivals.
In this feat of astonishing imagination, Proulx's inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid-in their greed, lust, vengefulness, sorrow, compassion and hope-that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable writers of our time, and Barkskins is the story she has been writing all her life, a magnificent American novel.
From the Back Cover
In the late seventeenth century two illiterate woodsmen, Rene Sel and Charles Duquet, make their way from Northern France to New France to seek a living. Bound to a feudal lord, a "seigneur," for three years in exchange for land, they suffer extraordinary hardship, always in awe of the forest they are charged with clearing, sometimes brimming with dreams of its commercial potential. Rene marries an Indian healer, and they have children, mixing the blood of two cultures. Duquet travels the globe and back, starting a logging company that will prosper for generations. Proulx tells the stories of the children, grandchildren, and descendants of these two lineages, the Sels and the Duquets, as well as the descendants of their allies and foes, as they travel back to Europe, to China, to New England, always in quest of a livelihood or a fortune, or fleeing stunningly brutal conditions-accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, the revenge of rivals.
In this feat of astonishing imagination, Proulx's inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid-in their greed, lust, vengefulness, sorrow, compassion and hope-that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable writers of our time, and Barkskins is the story she has been writing all her life, a magnificent American novel.
About the Author
Annie Proulx is the author of eight books, including the novel The Shipping News and the story collection Close Range. Her many honours include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and a PEN/Faulkner award. Her story “Brokeback Mountain,” which originally appeared in The New Yorker, was made into an Academy Award-winning film. She lives in Seattle.
Product details
- ASIN : B0163MEVNU
- Publisher : Fourth Estate (14 Jun. 2016)
- Language : English
- File size : 2.7 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 737 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: 233,022 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 146 in Native American Literature
- 312 in Historical African Fiction
- 1,004 in U.S. Historical Fiction
- Customer reviews:
About the author
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Annie Proulx's The Shipping News won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. She is the author of two other novels: Postcards, winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, and Accordion Crimes. She has also written two collections of short stories, Heart Songs and Other Stories and Close Range. In 2001, The Shipping News was made into a major motion picture. Annie Proulx lives in Wyoming and Newfoundland.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the story engaging and thought-provoking. They describe it as an educational saga that encapsulates the life stories of many individuals. However, some readers feel the book becomes too densely packed with detail and difficult to follow at times. There are mixed opinions on character development, with some finding them interesting and well-developed, while others consider them too numerous and lacking depth. Opinions differ on the length - some find it long and worthwhile, while others consider it too ambitious in its timescale.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the story engaging with its detailed history and vivid characters. They describe it as an educational saga that chronicles the lives of many individuals over 300 years. The early chapters provide a sense of the setting and highlight the interwoven stories of mixed families. Readers appreciate the detailed investigation of European settlers' greed and rapacity.
"...There is drama,cruelty, sadness, humour all written to draw the reader in to the extent that the reader becomes emotionally involved with the wide..." Read more
"This is a moving, detailed investigation of European settlers' rapacious, self-serving greed that virtually annihilated First Nations peoples and..." Read more
"...that, which is probably necessary to keep the story moving, the sweep of history, of the progress of the centuries and the advances of technology..." Read more
"...The early chapters are very interesting and well researched, really giving a feel for the time and the living conditions, it's hard to put down...." Read more
Customers find the subject fascinating and the book thought-provoking. They appreciate the extensive research and find the writing engaging. The themes are important to them, with a large cast and memorable pen portraits.
"...of the races and day to day living over the centuries is detailed, fascinating and informative...." Read more
"...There is also fascinating and devastating observation about the lockstep of American entrepreneurialism, hyper quick urban growth, the most callous..." Read more
"...of the centuries and the advances of technology are all clear and plausible. I never once doubted the author's research...." Read more
"...The early chapters are very interesting and well researched, really giving a feel for the time and the living conditions, it's hard to put down...." Read more
Customers find the book insightful. They appreciate its discussion of deforestation and its impact on the environment and indigenous peoples.
"...from the 1600's to the present day, and chronicles the deforestation of North America...." Read more
"...ecological, historical and industrial aspects it questions the deforestation of indigenous lands and the effects of those actions on the underlying..." Read more
"This is an extraordinary book: a family saga and fascinating account of the deforestation of America (and New Zealand) and colonialism...." Read more
"...about early settlers in Canada and US and their impact on the environment and indigenous peoples. Deeply researched" Read more
Customers have different views on the character development. Some find the characters interesting and well-developed, understanding them quickly through their clothes, stature, and conversations. Others feel the book has too many characters to care about, with insufficient depth of character and a lack of consistency in keeping track of them throughout the generations. The plot also lurches as new characters are introduced.
"...There are wonderful characters, not least timber baroness Lavinia Duke, and great tales of pre-20th century global trade...." Read more
"...and following their fortunes and misfortunes, the individual characters come and go quickly, so you might want to keep a rough family tree as you..." Read more
"...Whilst the long and involved cast list and their relationships with one another can become a little tedious at times, it is well worth persevering..." Read more
"...The plot lurches as new characters are introduced and within a few pages after an exclamation they take flight or die – 672/8...." Read more
Customers have different views on the book's length. Some find it a good read, while others feel it's too long, ambitious in its timescale, and confusing.
"It's long, it's very long, it is the Forsythe saga of the conquest of the North American continent (Canada and what became the nothern USA)..." Read more
"This is a long read (or listen on Audible as I did), but if you persevere you will be rewarded by learning so much about the history of the way the..." Read more
"...I did feel that the author got a bit fed up at the end and rushed towards the finish. I'd recommend it as an unusual read." Read more
"...The subject is fascinating but the timescale is overly ambitious and the huge cast of characters are largely superficial and I found it impossible..." Read more
Customers find the book's pacing slow and difficult to follow. They find it densely packed with details and overwhelming at times. The book is described as informative but dull, tedious, and lacking character development. Readers mention that people come and go too quickly, making it seem bleak and relentlessly drags on.
"...It is so rich in detail, in scope that it can seem overwhelming and the dramatic demises of some of the personae may appear somewhere between..." Read more
"...As it progresses, though, it sometimes becomes too densely packed with detail and becomes difficult to follow the family lineages...." Read more
"...Pretty bleak in places, but a not-bad read. Not sure why it was short-listed for a literary prize." Read more
"This book, although fiction, is very illuminating in regard to the development of the eastern part of Canada and the USA from the 18th century...." Read more
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2016Her best yet and that's saying something as she has written superb novels over the years. It pained me to write a negative review of her autobiographical Bird Cloud, but with Barkskins Annie is back and how.
A rambling , blockbuster epic covering the timber industry from the late 1600s to the present. That may sound dull, but believe me in the hands of Annie Proulx it is not. We follow the fortunes of both native Americans and the French, Scots, English and other imigrants as they pioneer this new world . The aboriginal people for over a thousand years took from the forests and rivers what they needed to live their version of a civilised life. The White men came in and took everything!
Set mainly in what is now Maritime Canada and New England, but also ranging far abroad to China, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and South America as well as the infant Chicago, the emerging New York and bustling Boston.
There are several riveting stories intertwined to form this mighty tale. There is drama,cruelty, sadness, humour all written to draw the reader in to the extent that the reader becomes emotionally involved with the wide variety of characters. At the back of the book are two family trees which I did not notice untill half way through and which were then a great help in keeping track of the families concerned.
For me the most impressive aspect is the immense research that must have gone into this work. Ms. Proulx' descriptions of the methods of harvesting timber, intercontinental communications, shipping, banking, business, fashions, integration of the races and day to day living over the centuries is detailed, fascinating and informative.
A very small criticism is that the last 30 or so pages over preach conservation and after such an exciting first 670 pages are a little tedious.This important message has already been taken on board and empathised with by any intelligent reader.
That asside this is the best book I have read in a long time and must be in line for a Pulitzer .
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 September 2016This is a moving, detailed investigation of European settlers' rapacious, self-serving greed that virtually annihilated First Nations peoples and devoured forests the world over. As I expect from Proulx, there's great yarn and delicious detail about the vagaries of family and other relationships. There are wonderful characters, not least timber baroness Lavinia Duke, and great tales of pre-20th century global trade. There is also fascinating and devastating observation about the lockstep of American entrepreneurialism, hyper quick urban growth, the most callous labour exploitation, and eviscerating ecological destruction. Is there hope? Yes. Some. This is a rich read - informed, informative, and enraging. Read it and be changed.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2017It's long, it's very long, it is the Forsythe saga of the conquest of the North American continent (Canada and what became the nothern USA) exploring the arrival and ingress of the white westerners into the native lands of the original peoples. You will need to concentrate as the family trees become lost in the actual forests that were exploited and destroyed to the benefit of the invaders and the almost destruction of the native inhabitants.
It is so rich in detail, in scope that it can seem overwhelming and the dramatic demises of some of the personae may appear somewhere between sensationalist and expedient to the story arc; what better way to dispose of one too many characters by having them meet a gruesome end? Given that, which is probably necessary to keep the story moving, the sweep of history, of the progress of the centuries and the advances of technology are all clear and plausible. I never once doubted the author's research.
When you make it to the end there is a knife edge of optimism for the future but how you read it will very much depend on your opinions before you came to the story.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 November 2020I bought this book when the TV series stopped prematurely, apparently due to covid, and I wanted to know what happened next. However, I didn't find out anything about the fortunes of the town, with the Iroquois at the gates supplied with guns by the Hudson Bay Company. I didn't find out because the TV series pays little attention to the book apart from the two men who were shipped from France as indentured labour. The town is hardly mentioned in the book, nor are there any young women shipped over as brides mentioned, nor are the inn and the nuns, the Iroquois are only mentioned in passing along with the Hudson Bay agents. The Frenchman who would be king of his own realm (Trepagny) is a major part of the opening few chapters, but it is his common law indian wife Mari and his two indentured labourers Rene Sel and Duquet and their offspring who form the whole backbone of the following 700 and odd pages.
Both the TV series and the book give an insight into what life could have been like during the early days of the colonisation of North America, but there the similarities end. The film goes for sensational action, albeit with a realistic ethos, while the book gives a much better insight into the fortunes of two families through a very long period of time. Rene Sel has a family with Mari and their fortunes differ considerably to those of Duquet's lineage.
Each is dealt with in turn and shows a considerable difference between the experiences of those of native Mi'kmaq indian/european heritage and those of solely european.
The early chapters are very interesting and well researched, really giving a feel for the time and the living conditions, it's hard to put down. As it progresses, though, it sometimes becomes too densely packed with detail and becomes difficult to follow the family lineages. The author has a flow chart in the form of the two family trees at the back of the book, but I only found these after reaching the end. Many of the experiences are fascinating too and, again, give a good feel for the times. But there seems to be a morbid preoccupation with various ways of dying. In one case there's nearly a full page about how one of Sel's descendants meets his accidental death. Perhaps that is really what life was like then.
So, I enjoyed a lot of it and I rarely read novels, but there are some parts I didn't enjoy and I found it much too long, I also found that the ending didn't really close the circle. But I'm glad I did read it especially for the early chapters.
Top reviews from other countries
- Heidi OpalkaReviewed in Canada on 17 February 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars North American history
The best book I ever read.
The language, the knowledge of forestry, plants, Indian affairs —totally amazing!
The choice of names, description of individual characters.
I feel like reading it all over again — I want to plant trees !
- YvonneReviewed in Mexico on 3 June 2021
4.0 out of 5 stars Love it!
There’s the genealogy’s stories, yes... the poors-richs stories, of course... but the environmental message, oh my ! The love for the trees and what they do mean for our existence moved me and inspired me.
- Kindle CustomerReviewed in India on 12 August 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Good
Great service
- GM S.Reviewed in Germany on 23 February 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars i just love Annie Proulx
this has been on my tbr pile for way too long
book looks good, arrived quickly, writing style and story telling are just like you expect from Proulx, incredible
- Jack B. RochesterReviewed in the United States on 30 October 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars Annie Proulx's latest novel does not disappoint
From The Shipping News to Accordion Crimes to “Brokeback Mountain,” Annie Proulx hasn’t written a novel or short story I didn’t enjoy. Proulx is a storyteller with a great depth of understanding for not just people, but environments both physical and emotional. One of my particular favorites is “On the Antler” from Heart Songs and Other Stories. It’s the story of a feud between two emotionally primitive men who live in the woods and have few means of expression, but seek revenge upon each other for crimes both real and imagined. A novel which lingers in my thoughts for its engaging thematic thread is Accordion Crimes. The musical instrument travels from hand to hand, place to place over a century, sometimes in danger and sometimes cherished, but never revealing its secret. Although Proulx’s works linger strongly in memory, I would read any one of them again.
Now comes Barkskins, a compelling story of people who came to North America to clear the vast coast-to-coast forests of what is now Canada and the United States. This time the narrative spans more than three centuries and never once lost my interest.
Barkskin was a word unfamiliar to me; it refers, in Proulx’s dedication, to “loggers, ecologists, sawyers, sculptors, hotshots, planters, students, scientists, leaf eaters, photographers, practitioners of shinrin-yoku, land-sat interpreters, climatologists, wood butchers, picnickers, foresters, ring counters and the rest of us.”
The novel, epic in length (over 700 pages), was utterly engaging over the two months it took me to read it (I’m a bedtime book-devourer). It begins in 1693 with two indentured Frenchmen named Rene Sel and Charles Duquet who become indentured lumberjacks. It traces them and their descendants’ various pursuits as barkskins into the early 21st century. Although fiction, it’s easy to see Proulx has done her homework: there is verisimilitude in characterization and time-place incidents that are clearly drawn from assiduous research. If you care to learn about the plot in detail, I encourage you to see the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkskins. Actually, I encourage you to just read the book.
Proulx writes with such vigor and incisiveness, as she always has, about the coarseness of life and its tribulations, without a narrator’s fairness or blessings or remorse. Her work often concerns the Northeastern United States and Canada, which are especially hard on people. This is particularly true of life in the New World for Sel and Duquet (the latter’s family will eventually change its name to Duke) as they disembark the ship from France to bushwhack through the dense forests of what is now Canada, a gazillion mosquitos attacking their faces and necks each step of the way as they slog through the mud and leaf mold and stumble over hidden tree roots.
Is this a “man vs. nature” story? Hardly. It is more pointedly “man vs. man.” For example, crews are enlisted to clear-cut, or denude, a piece of Maine land of its pine trees (for use as ship masts) with promise of payment once the trees have been floated down the river for passage to England. Yet they will never be paid since the landowner, who is part of the plot with the woodcutter, chases them off as trespassers once their work is completed. Or this: Having heard tales of the vast forests of kauri, a prized tree in New Zealand, a barkskin departs Chicago to greedily claim his share of them, only to be kidnapped by native Maoris and, well, that’s a spoiler alert.
In point of fact, lurking beneath all the people and events flowing through this novel is the issue of humankind’s lack of respect for, and conservation of, the forests. Proulx, ever careful not to proselytize, portrays this through Dieter Breitsprecher, who has married into the Duke family, and starts a project to replant vast acreage that’s been clear-cut. But as good or kind as some of these characters are, or as rapacious and greedy as others, in Proulx’s story no one gets out alive. There is no redemption or salvation, even for the trees. Barkskins is a book to carry you through the long winter nights ahead.