No Man's River - Softcover

Farley Mowat

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552636240 ISBN 13: 9781552636244

Publisher: Key Porter Books, 2004

Synopsis

In No Man`s River, master storyteller Farley Mowat delivers a gripping account of adventure in the far north, shared with a Metis trapper as the two men travel over a thousand miles by canoe. In the spring of 1947, putting the death and devastation of the Second World War behind him, Farley Mowat joined a scientific expedition to the north, seeking a saner world. In the remote, northern reaches of Manitoba, he encountered the Idthen Eldeli?People of the Caribou?a Dene people still living according to age-old traditions. Travelling still farther north, Mowat met the Ihalmiut, an Inuit people whose lives also revolved around the caribou. His companion, Metis trapper Charles Schweder, provided Mowat with an entree into the ancient cultures of these native peoples, and he came to know their land and ways with an intimacy achieved by few outsiders. Mowat was based at Windy Post with the Schweder clan, which included two Inuit children. The young girl, Kunee, also known as Rita, is painted with special vividness?checking the traplines with the men, riding atop a sled, smoking a tiny pipe. Farley returns to the north two decades later and discovers the tragic fate that awaited her. A rare glimpse into a lost world, No Man?s River is both an adventure tale and a heart-rending story of our indifference to the suffering of native and mixed-race peoples, told by one of the best-loved writers in the world.

About this title

About the Author

FARLEY MOWAT began writing for a living in 1949 after spending two years in the Arctic. He has lived in or visited almost every part of Canada and many other lands, including the distant regions of Siberia. He is author of 39 books, including People of the Deer, Never Cry Wolf, Sea of Slaughter, The Snow Walker, And No Birds Sang, and No Man's River. With sales of more than 14 million copies in 25 languages, Farley Mowat is one of Canada's most successful writers. He and his wife, Claire Mowat, divide their time between Ontario and Nova Scotia.

From Publishers Weekly

Having written more than 35 books (People of the Deer; Never Cry Wolf; etc.), Mowat (b. 1921) is certainly the pre-eminent chronicler of life on the Arctic frontier. Now he details an early Arctic adventure, a journey he took in 1947. After serving in the Canadian infantry in WWII, Mowat sought a peaceful, picturesque life in northern Manitoba, where he found circumstances that were less barbaric, but just as hard. Mowat describes joining a two-man zoological expedition on its way to an isolated camp run by a young trapper, Charles Schweder, and his family. Mowat's relationship with his expedition partner soon deteriorated, and he befriended Schweder. The two set out to help the local Eskimo population, who were struggling with smallpox and famine caused by dwindling caribou herds—all the while under pressure themselves to survive on the barren land: stockpiling meat, conserving ammunition and scrambling from shelter to shelter. The book's heart lies with the conflicts among Schweder, his racist father, his brooding brother and the Eskimo children who came into their home. Mowat's vivid descriptions and careful storytelling bring the northern frontier to life as well as any fictional account, yet the characters are real and the adversities loom large. As a result, the quiet, sad fates that meet many of Mowat's friends—both natives and pioneers—will have a lasting effect on readers.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Key Porter Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1552636240
• ISBN 13: 9781552636244
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368