BOOK CLUB SET Barkskins

"... An epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about taming the wilderness, set over two centuries. In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, René Sel and Chales 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, always in awe of the forest he is charged with cleaning. He is forced to marry a Mi'kmaw Indian healer with children already, 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 ... always in quest of a livelihood or fleeing stunningly brutal conditions - accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, the revenge of rivals. 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"--Publisher's description.