Pilgrimage

by Diana Davidson

Pilgrimage opens in the deep winter of 1891 on the Métis settlement of Lac St. Anne. Known as Manito Sakahigan in Cree, “Spirit Lake” has been renamed for the patron saint of childbirth. It is here that people journey in search of tradition, redemption, and miracles.


On this harsh and beautiful land, four interconnected people try to make a life in the colonial Northwest: Mahkesîs Cardinal, a young Métis girl pregnant by the Hudson Bay Company manager; Moira Murphy, an Irish Catholic house girl working for the Barretts; Georgina Barrett, the Anglo-Irish wife of the hbc manager who wishes for a child; and Gabriel Cardinal, Mahkesîs’ brother, who works on the Athabasca river and falls in love with Moira. Intertwined by family, desire, secrets, and violence, the characters live one tumultuous year on the Lac St. Anne settlement—a year that ends with a woman’s body abandoned in a well.


Set in a brilliant northern landscape, Pilgrimage is a moving debut novel about journeys, and women and men trying to survive the violent intimacy of a small place where two cultures intersect.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Canada, Fiction, Indigenous

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2013

About the author

Diana Davidson lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

Davidson's writing has been long-listed for the Canada Writes CBC creative nonfiction prize (2012) and has won the Writers' Guild of Alberta "Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Prize" (2010). Her work has appeared in Alberta Views, Avenue Edmonton Magazine, The Winnipeg Review, Women's Words as well as the academic anthologies Analyzing Mad Men and Spectral America. She has a Ph.D. in literature and has taught at the University of Alberta and the University of York, UK. She was chosen as one of Edmonton's "Top 40 Under 40" by Avenue Magazine in late-2011.

Davidson's debut novel Pilgrimage will be published by Brindle & Glass in September 2013.

Reviews

[Ruth Linka · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that doesn't tell a 'happy story' on the surface of things but tells a GOOD story, one that touched me and has stayed with me. It's made me think about 'happy' stories and what they mean to us and why we need them sometimes but why this kind of book that tells a 'true' (still fiction) story is so important to me.

Women do not have an easy life in Pilgrimage, little power, little freedom and little hope. But they still live these incredible lives. 1891 is a time of change in the west and the women played roles that helped shape our country.

I loved learning more about the Métis and the settlement at Lac St. Ann, which I know continues to be an important place for pilgrimage today.

A beautiful book. Beautiful like a prairie winter – still and deep, at times dangerous and hard, but always with the hope of Spring coming.

[Carol Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three female protagonists all speak for women of their time in a way that is honest and clear. The voices of these characters resonated with me and invited me into a time where women were definitely bereft of choices. This is a sad story but it is honest.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to win this book in a Goodreads giveaway! Am looking forward to this read, and will post a review when complete. Thanks to the author for making this book available to Goodreads readers!


Just finished this book this morning. I'm so grateful I was introduced to this book through Goodreads! I've never really written a review before, but am glad to write an honest one on Diana Davidson's first novel Pilgrimage. It is beautifully written, and I think this author is one to watch. Her book contains elements that make novels favorites for me: written in third person, from several different viewpoints; a strong sense of place, where the location essentially is one of the characters; and great character development. One additional element present is one that is often lacking in novels, but to me is the most essential, and what keeps me addicted to reading. It's that sense I get while reading a certain book, that the author has invested a lot of themselves in what they've created. In Pilgrimage, each chapter, each character, and each page is crafted lovingly, respectfully, even prayerfully. I love to read a story that evokes emotion in me, that has characters that are substantive and realistic, that has a setting that I can envision. I don't want to get into any descriptions of the plot or characters, but I do want to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction about characters and places that they will miss when they've read the last page, or to anyone who appreciates a well written story. Just as the yummiest food is always made with love, so are the best books written with the same, including blood, sweat, and tears. The moral of this story, in my eyes, is that life is quite ambivalent to us, and people can be cruel beyond imagination, yet what kind of person will you choose to be?

[Jessica Kluthe · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, the sweep of the sentences in Pilgrimage is enough to pull in any reader, and then, within this well-crafted novel, we encounter a rich part of our Canadian history, but--and importantly--from the perspectives of those sometimes placed outside of traditional historical narratives. Pilgrimage provides an all-encompassing reading experience, and while doing so, we see the (often violent) intersections of cultures and can understand the importance of recognizing the weight of this collision, and how this historical period continues to shape our Canadian identity. This is an important book, an absolute must read.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting historical fiction piece about northern Alberta in the late 1800's with some great characters. It is very well written and the traditions/life styles are well portrayed.

I found the gay episode very odd. It did not fit within the book and seemed like something that was unlikely given the main woman's character. It was as if the author was looking for something to make the tale more exciting but I found that it did not really fit in this book. I think the story was interesting enough without this.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this. I was sent a copy by the author. It was a good read overall.

[Gail Amendt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little known gem was a great way to start the new year, and coincidentally I started it on New Years Eve and the opening was set on New Year's Eve. How cool is that? On New Year's Eve in 1891, a group of people come together to celebrate in the Metis community of Lac St. Anne. We then follow several of these characters through the next fifteen months or so as their lives intertwine. Young Metis woman Mahkesis faces an unwanted pregnancy, Irish housekeeper Moira falls for Mahkesis' brother Gabriel, and Georgina, wife of the Hudson's Bay Company manager, struggles with her marriage, her past and her desire to be a mother. There is a lot food for thought as this novel examines racism, the Catholic Church and its role in colonialism, motherhood, imbalances of power, and a whole lot more. The author was intrigued by a news story about a woman's body found in an old well in Saskatoon, and set out to write an explanation for how it might have gotten there. She set the novel in a place she knew, Lac St. Anne and St. Albert, and went from there. The explanation she came up with was totally implausible, and I am deducting a star for that, but the rest of the story is pure gold.

[Lyn Zuberbuhler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diana Davidson's first historical fiction novel is a worthwhile read. Her characters are fictional but the times (late 1890's) are well researched and depicted. She explores the life of the Metis settlers in Lac Ste. Anne after the Riel Rebellion, as well as the circumstances which bring new settlers from the British Islands. Her characters are well drawn and believable, and the brutal life each experiences well described.
The setting includes Fort Edmonton, St. Albert, Fort McMurray, and the wilderness to Saskatchewan. I liked this book because it reminds each of us about the determination and strength required to settle this part of the world.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong debut novel. The northern Alberta setting was particularly interesting to me, as was learning about the history/importance of Lac St. Anne (a place I didn't really know about, despite having driven by it countless times).

And also, I started reading it on a day that felt like winter, with icy air and a thin blanket of snow covering the ground. That felt quite appropriate (not just because of the cover design, but because of the setting and tone of much of the book as well).

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written, compelling story. See my full review at The Winnipeg Review.

http://www.winnipegreview.com/wp/2013...

[Luise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating local history woven into a nicely paced story of well drawn characters.

[Meagan Houle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books that forces me to sit up, take notice, and become enraptured. It's the kind of book you can't gulp, and it's definitely not the kind of book you forget about days after you've finished reading it. It's an authentic, (and very well-researched) piece of Canadian fiction, which gives us a glimpse into the lives of the women who came before us. My knowledge of Canadian history has, up until this point, been factual, dry, and sequential in nature. I learned everything from textbooks, in which the details were boiled down to "First Nations people good, white people bad" followed by a long list of dates and names. I've expended a lot of energy excavating the history of other cultures, never really focusing on Canada's own. I never really thought about where I came from until I read this. I've since thought about the struggles my own great-great-great-grandmothers may have faced; I wondered if they, like the women in this story, felt displaced and scared and confused. I wonder if they were swept along by the culture and counterculture of such a fluid region. Did my foremothers carry the same burdens as Moira? More importantly, did they mistreat their First Nations peers in the way Mahkesîs is treated in this narrative? Is this the legacy I have inherited?
This story caused me great pain...but it also showed me a beauty I'd never known existed. The harsh beauty of our landscape; the eclectic mingling of so many languages (I flow so easily from French to English and back again that this story felt like home); the things that change (we don't have general stores anymore) and the things that stay the same (I know these places, I know some of these names). Sometimes I don't know who Canadians are, and I don't know who I am, either. This book made me remember.
Thank you, Diana.

[Lucia]

Truly one of the worst books I have ever read. Cannot believe that this author teaches writing

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m flabbergasted, frankly, at the liberty Diana Davidson took to write Indigenous lives as a white person. Her epilogue/author’s note does little to change my deep disappointment in a person who should know better. Having encountered her multiple times over the past two-ish decades between the U of A and the library world, I am shocked at her self-righteous tone of entitlement. I borrowed the book from the library believing it would be a settler’s tale... but the settler characters are asides. Davidson writes lives of Indigenous people and made money on this (a rare feat for a Canadian author.) Her drive to Lac St. Anne to grapple with being a white person writing historical fiction about Indigenous people makes her decision to publish it all the worse. She saw the colonial elitism and systemic racism that allowed her the space to write it and she went ahead.
Even if this book were not continued colonial oppression in its cultural environment, continued dominance of white people writing for/of/about Indigenous people to the exclusion of Indigenous writers, the writing itself is poor. It’s narrative-driven pop writing, again, not what would be expected of an English Lit PhD.

I’m appalled on so many levels.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the people and time. The parties in late 1800s a rough and challenging era.

[Suetheartist · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so delighted when a debut novel is engaging and the prose seems to have a flow that has you floating along with the story. Diana Davidson has written a novel with such descriptive and accurate insights into life in 1891-2 living in northern Alberta. You sense the harshness of the elements of winter. You are charged with emotional sadness of the residential schools unnecessary brutality. And compassion overflows at the struggle of women overpowered by bullies and the consequences or lack of.. Ironic is the setting Lac St Anne, Manitou Sakahigan in Cree, an idyllic place encompassed by healing waters, serenity and life. The name of the place and people are altered to christianize their existence. One has to only wonder after over 100 years at how righteous and misguided all that 'Christianity' has amounted to its native people. How much more we all would have gained by working together rather than wiping out a culture enriched by it's surrounding nature.

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great historical fiction set right in my home province of Alberta! I really enjoyed reading setting something set in a different time than other things I've read, and learning a bit about Alberta's history. The story was told from various characters point of view, which made it more enjoyable and broad. I really liked knowing the characters' inner thoughts and really felt the connections between them all.

(Read for the Book Riot 2017 Read Harder challenge - read a book that is set within 100 miles of your location)

[Gisela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a very good first novel for author Diana Davidson. The understated, elegant, and brutally honest writing style drew me in as a reader, and I appreciated the insight I was given into a culture I previously knew little about. I regularly drive past Lac St. Anne on my way between Edmonton and my home northwest of Grande Prairie, and I will certainly never do so again without thinking of this story and its interesting cast of characters.

[Shawna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The issue of appropriation is addressed in the notes at the end of the story. Local historical fiction is important for understanding where we came from. I imagined this whole story inside the recreated fort at Fort Edmonton Park.

[Reia Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

A satisfying depiction of what life would have been like during the 1890’s in Northern Alberta. Written believably, carefully and with tremendous love. I enjoyed the journey very much and look forward to future work by Diana Davidson.

[Donna]

Good but predictable.

[Bob Mcinnis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best of the Alberta Book Publisher's Readers' Choice awards nominees. A dark, yet inspiring tale of life and survival in Northern Alberta in late 19th century