A 4 out of 5 on my ‘WOW Books’ scale!
Winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award, this national bestseller is a captivating, intense mystery and true history of myth, madness and greed in the context of logging the Pacific west coast and in particular, the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) of the northwest.
John Vaillant delivers a vivid story of man vs. nature. He weaves together a thrilling and complex story of the ancient beauty of the coastal wilderness, the world of logging and the history of the Europeans and the Haida. Beginning with one man’s destruction of a 300-year-old Sitka spruce, fifty metres tall with luminous golden needles, and sacred to the Haida people the author goes on to tell an enthralling yet balanced tale of the ongoing, complex relationship between ecological majesty and man’s habits of destruction.
Other than memoir, I rarely read non-fiction and am so glad I made an exception with this terrific read!
2 comments
31 January 2011 at 12:55 pm
Mary McIntyre
I saw a documentary about artist and writer Emily Carr recently. She also loved the “ancient beauty of the coastal wilderness”, but the Haida people did not truly welcome her presence when they banned non-native people from their territory while their disputes with the government were not settled. She went anyway, and wonders why they didn’t welcome her.
This sounds like a great book Cheryl.
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26 September 2011 at 2:11 pm
Cheryl
I hadn’t heard about Emily Carr not being welcome at Haida Gwaii (The Queen Charlotte Islands). Off to Bing to check it out. Thanks!
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