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Barkskins
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 25 hrs and 49 mins
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Barkskins
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Publisher's Summary
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.
Critic Reviews
‘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
What listeners say about Barkskins
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sylvia McLeod
- 25-07-2018
MAsterpiece! Proux's life work complete.
Revelatory and frighteningly relevant to all cultures and societies, this
epic is an artwork beyond imagination.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- John Pike
- 30-03-2017
a Saga
some good characters, but overall it's the innocent natives verse the nasty invaders of North America
I like her works
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- shirley
- 28-09-2016
An amazing saga
This book is poetry. The writing is strong and evocative but it is so long covering hundreds of years. ... Hundreds of characters ... Hundreds of stories. An important over-arching story of man's greed and destruction with small shoots of hope.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lizz
- 20-04-2020
Worth every minute of listening...
Annie Proulx never fails to deliver. Barkskins is brilliant read/listen, highly recommended if you enjoy epic stories and Robert Petkoff was a pleasure to the ears.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- wendy
- 31-07-2016
a disappointment
This book seems really sprawling and disjointed. Its baffling, it seemed to try to address too many issues…everything from environmental vandalism, sexism, raciscm, colonialism …. to incest? an ambitious project and didn't quite meet the mark. I really didn't feel connected to ..or particularly like ….. any of the characters. A waste of my time really.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Warwick Foster
- 01-08-2016
What a journey
How many generations did it cover? Really recommend. Although how the writing of the first generation survived is a little far reaching.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- JENNIFER
- 11-05-2018
Great
As i read it i wondered if any of it was based on fact interesting story
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ron Ander
- 06-02-2017
brilliant!
top 3 audio books i have ever listened to. the story and narration are second to none. i highly recommend it.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Erin
- 10-02-2017
depressing and dull
The worst audio experience I have ever had. 300 years of suffering, greed and destruction of the natural world, and mercilessly boring. Awful!!!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Barb
- 19-08-2016
boring
I did not finish the story did not capture my attention, very slow and dry
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1 person found this helpful