What do you think?
Rate this book
The Beothuk Saga, 1st Edition
This astounding novel fully deserves to be called a saga. It begins a thousand years ago in the time of the Vikings in Newfoundland. It is crammed with incidents of war and peace, with fights to the death and long nights of lovemaking, and with accounts of the rise of local clan chiefs and the silent fall of great distant empires. Out of the mists of the past it sweeps forward eight hundred years, to the lonely death of the last of the Beothuk.
The Beothuk, of course, were the original native people of Newfoundland, and thus the first North American natives encountered by European sailors. Noticing the red ochre they used as protection against mosquitoes, the sailors called them “Red-skins,” a name that was to affect an entire continent. As a people, they never were to be understood. Even The Canadian Encyclopedia “Very little is known about Beothuk society and even less about Beothuk history.”
Until now. By adding his novelist’s imagination to his knowledge as an anthropologist and a historian, Bernard Assiniwi has written a convincing account of the Beothuk people through the ages. To do so he has given us a mirror image of the history rendered by Europeans. For example, we know from the Norse Sagas that four slaves escaped from the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. What happened to them? Bernard Assiniwi supplies a plausible answer, just as he perhaps solves the mystery of the Portuguese ships that sailed west in 1501 to catch more Beothuk, and disappeared from the paper records forever.
The story of the Beothuk people is told in three parts. “The Initiate” tells of Anin, who made a voyage by canoe around the entire island a thousand years ago, encountering the strange Vikings with their “cutting sticks” and their hair “the colour of dried grass.” His encounters with whales, bears, raiding Inuit and other dangers, and his survival skills on this epic journey make for fascinating reading, as does his eventual return to his home where, with the help of his strong and active wives, he becomes a legendary chief, the father of his people.
“The Invaders” takes us to the time when Basque, Breton, Spanish, Portuguese, French and English fishermen and explorers thronged the waters off Newfoundland. All too often they raided, kidnapped or slaughtered the natives, who – unable to communicate in words – learned to fight back in guerrilla attacks. We learn the names of the men and women who led this heroic unequal struggle, brilliantly imagined here as it must have been.
The final section is able to stick very closely to recorded fact; it is entitled “Genocide.” We learn of the state of the Beothuk nation by the late 1700s, hunted down to a man, a woman, and a child) with a bounty on their heads. Here the heartbreaking story is told by Demasduit (named “Mary March” because she was captured in March) and finally by Shanawdithit, the last Living Memory of the Beothuk, who died in St. John’s on June 5, 1829.
To emphasize the authenticity of this important book – its voice filling one of the silences of history – it concludes with a Chronology of Events in Beothuk History, and a Lexicon of the Beothuk language. These are unusual additions for a novel. Yet this unforgettable book is something much more than a work of fiction; it is an imaginative reconstruction of a history that has been destroyed. Whether you are a Bouguishamesh or an Addizabad-Zéa, you will remember this book.
The Beothuk, of course, were the original native people of Newfoundland, and thus the first North American natives encountered by European sailors. Noticing the red ochre they used as protection against mosquitoes, the sailors called them “Red-skins,” a name that was to affect an entire continent. As a people, they never were to be understood. Even The Canadian Encyclopedia “Very little is known about Beothuk society and even less about Beothuk history.”
Until now. By adding his novelist’s imagination to his knowledge as an anthropologist and a historian, Bernard Assiniwi has written a convincing account of the Beothuk people through the ages. To do so he has given us a mirror image of the history rendered by Europeans. For example, we know from the Norse Sagas that four slaves escaped from the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. What happened to them? Bernard Assiniwi supplies a plausible answer, just as he perhaps solves the mystery of the Portuguese ships that sailed west in 1501 to catch more Beothuk, and disappeared from the paper records forever.
The story of the Beothuk people is told in three parts. “The Initiate” tells of Anin, who made a voyage by canoe around the entire island a thousand years ago, encountering the strange Vikings with their “cutting sticks” and their hair “the colour of dried grass.” His encounters with whales, bears, raiding Inuit and other dangers, and his survival skills on this epic journey make for fascinating reading, as does his eventual return to his home where, with the help of his strong and active wives, he becomes a legendary chief, the father of his people.
“The Invaders” takes us to the time when Basque, Breton, Spanish, Portuguese, French and English fishermen and explorers thronged the waters off Newfoundland. All too often they raided, kidnapped or slaughtered the natives, who – unable to communicate in words – learned to fight back in guerrilla attacks. We learn the names of the men and women who led this heroic unequal struggle, brilliantly imagined here as it must have been.
The final section is able to stick very closely to recorded fact; it is entitled “Genocide.” We learn of the state of the Beothuk nation by the late 1700s, hunted down to a man, a woman, and a child) with a bounty on their heads. Here the heartbreaking story is told by Demasduit (named “Mary March” because she was captured in March) and finally by Shanawdithit, the last Living Memory of the Beothuk, who died in St. John’s on June 5, 1829.
To emphasize the authenticity of this important book – its voice filling one of the silences of history – it concludes with a Chronology of Events in Beothuk History, and a Lexicon of the Beothuk language. These are unusual additions for a novel. Yet this unforgettable book is something much more than a work of fiction; it is an imaginative reconstruction of a history that has been destroyed. Whether you are a Bouguishamesh or an Addizabad-Zéa, you will remember this book.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
8 people are currently reading
223 people want to read
About the author
Bernard Assiniwi
12 books5 followersDr. Bernard Assiniwi D.h.c est né à Montréal en 1935 d’une mère canadienne-française d’origine algonquine et d’un père algonquin et cri. Il est le premier auteur amérindien à publier un ouvrage en français largement distribué au Québec (Anish-nah-be. Contes adultes du pays algonkin, Leméac, 1971). Sa formation multidisciplinaire (musique, chant, biologie, génétique animale, médecine vétérinaire, administration publique) lui permet d’avoir une carrière riche et diversifiée. Il est animateur et réalisateur d’émissions et de documentaires sur l’histoire des Amérindiens, la vie en plein air et l’écologie. Il est aussi comédien, fondateur de la section culturelle du ministère des Affaires indiennes et directeur des communications et des relations publiques au Bureau des Revendications autochtones du même ministère, président de l’Alliance autochtone du Québec, professeur de création littéraire à l’Université d’Ottawa. Il collabore à plusieurs journaux et périodiques au Canada et en Europe. Chez Leméac, il est directeur de la collection Ni-t’chawama/Mon ami mon frère consacrée aux Amérindiens (1972-1976). En 1992, il obtient le poste de chercheur en histoire autochtone au Service canadien d’ethnologie du Musée canadien des civilisations de Hull, qu’il a occupé jusqu’à son décès en 2000. Son dernier roman historique, La Saga des Béothuks (Leméac/Actes Sud, 1996) reçoit le prix littéraire France-Québec Jean-Hamelin en 1997 en plus d’être finaliste pour le Prix du gouverneur général du Canada. En 1999, l’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières lui décerne un doctorat honoris causa pour l’ensemble de son œuvre. Après son décès, l’organisme amérindien Terres en vues crée en son honneur le prix Dr. Bernard-Chagnan-Assiniwi décerné pour la première fois en 2001 à un artiste ou un créateur autochtone dont le travail a contribué à l’enrichissement de sa culture d’origine et a stimulé ses compatriotes par son cheminement.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 2, 2023
misogynie😻🫶🏻 i love😻😻 so🥳 MUCH!
October 29, 2020
Le génocide est Béothuks a fortement marqué l’histoire du Canada. J’ai lu « Le Saga des Béothuks » afin d’en savoir plus long. Bernard Assiniwi réussit finalement à mettre beaucoup de lumière sur le phénomène. Malheureusement son roman a énormément de défauts sur le plan littéraire.
On voit les racines du problème dans sa bibliographie. Le roman se divise en trois parties. Pour la première partie qui couvre la période de l’an 1000 jusqu’à 1497, il existe seulement deux textes contemporains, en l’occurrence deux sagas Viking. Donc pour la première partie du roman Assiniwi s’est basé sur les études archéologiques et anthropologiques et il est très difficile de construire un narratif de telles sources. Pour la deuxième partie qui couvre la période de 1497 jusqu’à 1700, il existe des chroniques des explorateurs européens qui sont très bons pour ceux veulent écrire l’histoire de l’exploration mais qui ne sont pas très utiles pour ceux qui veulent raconter l’histoire d’un des peuples indigènes. Pour la troisième période qui traitent de la période de 1700 à 1829 l’année ou le dernier Béothuk meurt, il y a assez de chroniques contemporains pour écrire un narratif solide du peuple Béothuk. Tous les personnages de la troisième partie sont des vraies personnes.
Il y a dans bien d’autres critiques GR des commentaires sur la qualité très inégale du texte du roman. Ils ont tous raison. Cette inégalité n’est pas dû au fait Assiniwi est un mauvais écrivain. Le problème est plutôt qu’il a accepté un défi impossible; c’est-à-dire de raconter 829 ans d’histoire dans un seul roman.
À mon avis la meilleure partie est la troisième où il raconte l’histoire du génocide qui est au cœur de son projet. Assiniwi juge sévèrement mais il est juste. Il n’y a jamais eu une politique d’exterminer les Béothuk. Au contraire, la politique officielle était de laisser les Béothuks en paix dans leur territoire ancestrale. Malheureusement, ceux qui voulaient la paix avec les Béothuks n’ont pris aucune mesure concrète pour les protéger contre les colons et marchands sur place qui sautaient sur chaque opportunité d’attaquer les Béothuks.
Assiniwi présente des nuances. Il reconnait aussi les maladies ont fait autant de mal que les agressions. La tuberculose a peut-être tué plus de Béothuks que des blancs avec des mousquets. Aussi, il reconnait que les tribus qui se sont converti au Christianisme avait des protecteurs que n’avaient pas les Béothuks et ont fini par survivre.
C’est la première partie du roman qui m’a la plus agacé. Faute de pouvoir raconter des événements véritables, Assiniwi invente tout. Il parle beaucoup de la polygamie, du saphisme, de la position d’andromaque et des accouplements en groupe. J’aurai pu fort bien m’en passer.
« Le Saga des Béothuks » informe mais il déplait énormément. C’est regrettable car l’auteur a très bien présenté plusieurs aspects de cette histoire tragique.
On voit les racines du problème dans sa bibliographie. Le roman se divise en trois parties. Pour la première partie qui couvre la période de l’an 1000 jusqu’à 1497, il existe seulement deux textes contemporains, en l’occurrence deux sagas Viking. Donc pour la première partie du roman Assiniwi s’est basé sur les études archéologiques et anthropologiques et il est très difficile de construire un narratif de telles sources. Pour la deuxième partie qui couvre la période de 1497 jusqu’à 1700, il existe des chroniques des explorateurs européens qui sont très bons pour ceux veulent écrire l’histoire de l’exploration mais qui ne sont pas très utiles pour ceux qui veulent raconter l’histoire d’un des peuples indigènes. Pour la troisième période qui traitent de la période de 1700 à 1829 l’année ou le dernier Béothuk meurt, il y a assez de chroniques contemporains pour écrire un narratif solide du peuple Béothuk. Tous les personnages de la troisième partie sont des vraies personnes.
Il y a dans bien d’autres critiques GR des commentaires sur la qualité très inégale du texte du roman. Ils ont tous raison. Cette inégalité n’est pas dû au fait Assiniwi est un mauvais écrivain. Le problème est plutôt qu’il a accepté un défi impossible; c’est-à-dire de raconter 829 ans d’histoire dans un seul roman.
À mon avis la meilleure partie est la troisième où il raconte l’histoire du génocide qui est au cœur de son projet. Assiniwi juge sévèrement mais il est juste. Il n’y a jamais eu une politique d’exterminer les Béothuk. Au contraire, la politique officielle était de laisser les Béothuks en paix dans leur territoire ancestrale. Malheureusement, ceux qui voulaient la paix avec les Béothuks n’ont pris aucune mesure concrète pour les protéger contre les colons et marchands sur place qui sautaient sur chaque opportunité d’attaquer les Béothuks.
Assiniwi présente des nuances. Il reconnait aussi les maladies ont fait autant de mal que les agressions. La tuberculose a peut-être tué plus de Béothuks que des blancs avec des mousquets. Aussi, il reconnait que les tribus qui se sont converti au Christianisme avait des protecteurs que n’avaient pas les Béothuks et ont fini par survivre.
C’est la première partie du roman qui m’a la plus agacé. Faute de pouvoir raconter des événements véritables, Assiniwi invente tout. Il parle beaucoup de la polygamie, du saphisme, de la position d’andromaque et des accouplements en groupe. J’aurai pu fort bien m’en passer.
« Le Saga des Béothuks » informe mais il déplait énormément. C’est regrettable car l’auteur a très bien présenté plusieurs aspects de cette histoire tragique.
March 15, 2023
Enfin terminé 😮💨
Le genre de livre que t'aurais aimé ne pas avoir lu🙃🤡
Le genre de livre que t'aurais aimé ne pas avoir lu🙃🤡
December 23, 2020
This one was painful to read. I started over a year ago and made it 1/4 through. I was excited to read a book written by an indigenous author about indigenous people but I just couldn't muster more than one page at a time. The author seems weirdly fixated with random people having sex with each other, with sex scenes that do not add to the plot and seem unnecesary. They say books are supposed to show not tell, but this book is all tell ... and I am not sure what it was telling me anyway. Characters are very 1 dimensional and despite their ongoing struggles there is zero character evolution. I hardly give up on books but I cannot see how I can get through 300 more pages of this book
August 7, 2018
An excellent book. I liked the details of the Beothuk's everyday lives. It is a sad story but one that needs to be told.
February 6, 2023
Fait partie des livres contre lesquels j’ai une vendetta que je ne peux pas à expliquer sans faire une syncope
July 25, 2024
Every year I try to read at least one Canadian-Indigenous book and the story of the Beothuk Nation and their inevitable demise has always piqued my interest. I genuinely enjoyed this book. I've learned a lot about the Beothuk in the past through a factual historical lense, however the stories in this book, told by the Beothuk's story-tellers passed down over 800 years, provides an in-depth understanding of the reasoning behind the choices they made that led to the eventual eradication after a failure to co-exsist with the European colonists. It was educational and entertaining. I liked the way the sections were broken down into time periods and each story teller had an authentic voice.
August 25, 2013
This was a heavy read. It is broken into three sections, The Initiate, The Invaders and Genocide.
As you can imagine the story just gets sadder and sadder.
I knew from history about the Beothuk people, but this book opened my eyes and my heart.
It is unimaginable to me that humans (ie the English, French, etc.) could treat other humans in such a manner.
Highly recommended read.
As you can imagine the story just gets sadder and sadder.
I knew from history about the Beothuk people, but this book opened my eyes and my heart.
It is unimaginable to me that humans (ie the English, French, etc.) could treat other humans in such a manner.
Highly recommended read.
December 9, 2023
Récit qui relate les hauts faits des habitants autochtones de l’actuelle région de Terre-Neuve, de leur expansion à le leur décimation. Livre accessible agrémenter d’un lexique autochtone qui donne à réfléchir sur le côté obscur du progrès et le respect de la différence.
January 4, 2024
Un chef d'oeuvre qui relate une fiction réaliste d'un peuple autochtone sur l'île de Terre Neuve en 4 actes, pour finalement devenir presque un livre historique sur la disparition de cette nation. Belle mais triste histoire si bien racontée.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 6, 2013
Every Canadian should read this book. And it's not hard; awesome story.
August 1, 2015
A difficult book to read. Gripping and horrifying at same time. The annihilation of the Beothuk race.
December 29, 2021
Très bon livre qui perpétue la mémoire d’un peuple malheureusement décimé.
June 2, 2025
Excellent telling of indigenous history. Made me cry. This should be a must textbook for all highschool reads.
January 19, 2026
Très bon livre qui raconte l'histoire vraie d'une nation autochtone qui a entièrement été décimée. Intéressant de voir leur mode de vie et touchant/frustrant de voir tous les malheurs qu'ils ont dû subir.
C'est romancé, mais ça parle quand même de vrais faits historiques qui sont arrivés.
Malgré l'épaisseur du livre, c'est une lecture quand même assez simple à lire. Les nombreuses descriptions détaillées nous transportent facilement à l'endroit et au moment où l'histoire se déroule.
Bref, c'est un livre touchant, émouvant et qui nous apprends beaucoup de choses, autant dans les techniques de fabrication, que dans la préparation des aliments, l'utilisation des plantes, la langue béothuk ou les faits historiques. Un livre enrichissant qui se doit d'être lu par des gens intéressés par la culture autochtone pour pouvoir être pleinement apprécié.
C'est romancé, mais ça parle quand même de vrais faits historiques qui sont arrivés.
Malgré l'épaisseur du livre, c'est une lecture quand même assez simple à lire. Les nombreuses descriptions détaillées nous transportent facilement à l'endroit et au moment où l'histoire se déroule.
Bref, c'est un livre touchant, émouvant et qui nous apprends beaucoup de choses, autant dans les techniques de fabrication, que dans la préparation des aliments, l'utilisation des plantes, la langue béothuk ou les faits historiques. Un livre enrichissant qui se doit d'être lu par des gens intéressés par la culture autochtone pour pouvoir être pleinement apprécié.
January 10, 2023
Vraiment un récit en trois parties. La première est très largement imaginée, avec de longues séquences « pour adultes » qui n’ont pas leur place dans une histoire d’une telle envergure. La deuxième mélange fiction et tradition orale plus subtilement, sans toutefois éliminer les séquences déplacées qui continuent d’être inutiles dans un tel ouvrage. Par contre, la troisième et dernière partie, largement construite à partir des mémoires orales et écrites de la toute dernière Béothuk, mérite de faire partie de notre histoire et souligne la place qu’on aurait dû faire à cette tribu, anéantie par les colons britanniques.
February 1, 2018
I loved the depth and deliberation of Part 1. The rest, by comparison, felt a little rushed and under-developed. It did cover 500 years in the last couple hundred pages or so. But I learned a lot and I felt a renewed sense of horror at the brutal (savage, you might say) extermination of the Beothuk at the hands of the British, this being a sort of a cross between fiction and non-fiction. Well worth reading, educational and recommended to settler Canadians.
August 29, 2020
Récit peu connu, j'ai bien aimé apprendre à propos de l'histoire des Béothuks et de la colonisation de Terre-Neuve. Bien que j'en doutais de la fin avant même d'ouvrir le livre, la tragédie du génocide de ce peuple m'a mis des larmes aux yeux.
May 21, 2023
Amitié ours-humain. Nommer le clan en l'honneur de l'ours qui protège.
Les ours sont gentils.
Les ours sont gentils.
April 1, 2013
A week ago, as a group of Native Canadian young people completed a 1,600 kilometer trek from Northern Quebec to Ottawa, I was reminded of a .book whose ending I knew before I started reading, but which kept me fascinated all the way through anyway. It is The Beothuk Saga by Bernard Assiniwi (translated from French by Wayne Grady, published more than a decade ago, but increasingly relevant.
People who have listened even with one ear to the sad tale of North America's First People know that there are no more Beothuks. But Assiniwi tells their story with such interesting detail that half way through I found myself hoping against hope that such admirable people would survive.
The novel, which won the Prix France-Quebec in 1997, is divided into three main sections. The first, "The Initiate." begins at the start of the last millennium with Anin two years into a voyage of initiation in manhood, paddling around Newfoundland. As the story opens, his solitary mission is interrupted as he encounters a young woman, Woasut, whose people have been massacred by enemies from another Native tribe. They continue together, taking care to make winter camp well inland from a Viking settlement they see from afar. In the spring they're joined by a Viking woman fleeing her violent countrymen. Before long the woman's sister also finds them, as do two run-away Scottish slaves.
What is striking about these encounters is the way the Viking and Scots are shown to be from societies not much more modern than Amin's. They have metal: the Scots girl slave has run off with an metal axe whose efficiency amazes Amin. But these outlanders also come from a world where it's important to know about hunting, fishing, hard work and rough shelter. If anything Amin's society offers more than their's did, since in the Beothuks' world there is no slavery, and no God Who damns people who don't believe in Him.
When they all arrive back at Amin's village, the people he's brought home with him are assimilated into the society, his exploits pass into the Beothuks' oral tradition, and the stage is set for 500 years, more or less, of a hard but agreeable life.
The second section, "The Invaders," jumps forward to the 1500s when the first Portuguese and French explorers arrive. The Beothuks repel the invaders at first, gaining a reputation as being as dangerous as wolves. But they are unprepared for life in constant contact with Europeans. After one final, losing battle in which they try to throw out the new arrivals, they are forced to retreat to the interior of the island .
The third section, "Genocide," is the story of the 18th and 19th centuries, and is heart-breaking. The Beothuks struggle to survive, but don't. We've known that all along, of course, but that doesn't detract from the poignancy.
Born to a Quebecoise mother and a Cree father, Assiniwi had been a curator of ethnology and a researcher at the Canadian Museum of Civilization at Hull until shortly before his death in 2000 at age 65. He also was author of nearly 30 non-fiction works ranging from books of traditional Native recipes to the three volume Histoire des Indiens du haut et du bas Canada.
Without knowing Assiniwi's credentials it might be possible to dismiss his descriptions of the Beothuk Golden Age as Noble Savage sentimentalism, since the book has a bibliography but no footnotes. But start to track his sources down, and it becomes clear that his story is based on careful archeological and ethnological research. Jane Smiley's The Greenlanders (a saga of the Vikings' Greenland) and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel (about what happens when societies collide ) also support Assiniwi's premises and make great supplementary reading, too.
It should surprise few, of course, that the day the young Cree marchers arrived at their goal--can you imagine! from Hudson's Bay to Ottawa on foot in winter!--Prime Minister Stephen Harper wasn't around to greet them. Instead he was in Toronto, welcoming two pandas on long-term loan from China.
People who have listened even with one ear to the sad tale of North America's First People know that there are no more Beothuks. But Assiniwi tells their story with such interesting detail that half way through I found myself hoping against hope that such admirable people would survive.
The novel, which won the Prix France-Quebec in 1997, is divided into three main sections. The first, "The Initiate." begins at the start of the last millennium with Anin two years into a voyage of initiation in manhood, paddling around Newfoundland. As the story opens, his solitary mission is interrupted as he encounters a young woman, Woasut, whose people have been massacred by enemies from another Native tribe. They continue together, taking care to make winter camp well inland from a Viking settlement they see from afar. In the spring they're joined by a Viking woman fleeing her violent countrymen. Before long the woman's sister also finds them, as do two run-away Scottish slaves.
What is striking about these encounters is the way the Viking and Scots are shown to be from societies not much more modern than Amin's. They have metal: the Scots girl slave has run off with an metal axe whose efficiency amazes Amin. But these outlanders also come from a world where it's important to know about hunting, fishing, hard work and rough shelter. If anything Amin's society offers more than their's did, since in the Beothuks' world there is no slavery, and no God Who damns people who don't believe in Him.
When they all arrive back at Amin's village, the people he's brought home with him are assimilated into the society, his exploits pass into the Beothuks' oral tradition, and the stage is set for 500 years, more or less, of a hard but agreeable life.
The second section, "The Invaders," jumps forward to the 1500s when the first Portuguese and French explorers arrive. The Beothuks repel the invaders at first, gaining a reputation as being as dangerous as wolves. But they are unprepared for life in constant contact with Europeans. After one final, losing battle in which they try to throw out the new arrivals, they are forced to retreat to the interior of the island .
The third section, "Genocide," is the story of the 18th and 19th centuries, and is heart-breaking. The Beothuks struggle to survive, but don't. We've known that all along, of course, but that doesn't detract from the poignancy.
Born to a Quebecoise mother and a Cree father, Assiniwi had been a curator of ethnology and a researcher at the Canadian Museum of Civilization at Hull until shortly before his death in 2000 at age 65. He also was author of nearly 30 non-fiction works ranging from books of traditional Native recipes to the three volume Histoire des Indiens du haut et du bas Canada.
Without knowing Assiniwi's credentials it might be possible to dismiss his descriptions of the Beothuk Golden Age as Noble Savage sentimentalism, since the book has a bibliography but no footnotes. But start to track his sources down, and it becomes clear that his story is based on careful archeological and ethnological research. Jane Smiley's The Greenlanders (a saga of the Vikings' Greenland) and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel (about what happens when societies collide ) also support Assiniwi's premises and make great supplementary reading, too.
It should surprise few, of course, that the day the young Cree marchers arrived at their goal--can you imagine! from Hudson's Bay to Ottawa on foot in winter!--Prime Minister Stephen Harper wasn't around to greet them. Instead he was in Toronto, welcoming two pandas on long-term loan from China.
August 25, 2013
It started out in a cheese romance-novel vein crossed with "Clan of the Cave Bear," not an auspicious beginning. Assiniwi tells three stories, the last of which is fragmented and ends up coming from the European/white point of view, which is not the intention of the book. The other two sections are more interesting-- he makes some imaginative assertions, as he has to (there's so little evidence of Beothuk culture). What at first reads like misogynistic nonsense becomes a prolonged, sincere investigation of gender roles in a culture. It ends up being one of those books you wish had been better-- it had its moments... Tough topic to write about.
October 4, 2013
This review contains spoilers: A bold attempt at an account of the life of the Beothuk, the tragic tribe that lived in Newfoundland until they were wiped out by the European invaders. The story is fiction, but the author tries to weave his tale around the little that is known for sure of the Beothuk. A bit wordy and convoluted at times, this nevertheless is a useful and interesting story that runs from the origins of the tribe to its tragic end in the early nineteenth century.
February 7, 2010
book had it's up and down parts, I liked the first section, it was the most that was a like a story, the rest moved to fast and didn't get much chance to know the char. It was sort of the same thing written over and over. Text was written in a very basic form, not sure if this was due to the translation or ment to imulate the way they though/ spoke.
October 13, 2014
Great read. The story is captivating and follows the Beothuk through time. I enjoyed the inclusion of locations and was thankful for the map. Recommended for anyone who is interested in Newfoundland and enjoys a bit of a historical narrative
September 10, 2009
Oh man, couldn't even finish it. Pure crap. I wish it were better, but it just wasn't. I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy it. Ugh.
August 17, 2011
I usually don't read this type of book so it was an interesting break for me. I find myself becoming more and more interested in historical fiction these days.
June 2, 2012
The tears come in part 3.
May 26, 2014
Amazing storytelling. I can't image the research that was needed to write this book. A story that all Canadians should read. Really.
March 4, 2015
It was a in-depth look at the native peoples of Newfoundland/Labrador. Started off engaging but tended to lose pace towards the end.
April 14, 2016
A gifted, sensitive telling of the history of the Beothuk nation.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews