A breathtaking and cinematic novel about the lust for gold and its bloody consequences, set in the unforgiving landscape of the sub-Arctic Canadian wilderness, from the acclaimed author of The North Water
‘Like The North Water, with which it shares much DNA, White River Crossing moves at a propulsive lick, its bloody meat marbled with cruelty and violence. McGuire does not let us look away: the clumsy amputation of a gangrenous arm is described in almost voluptuous detail, while the desolate beauty of the vast landscape is summoned with a sharp precision’ Guardian
‘McGuire can construct an enthralling narrative, while sensitively handling the upheavals caused by colonial arrogance and overreach. His characterization can also be masterly. [..] An expertly told thriller that’s also a classic colonial adventure story’ Telegraph
‘Like Hilary Mantel in her Wolf Hall trilogy, McGuire achieves a cinematic intimacy’ Spectator
A ragged fur peddler arrives at a remote outpost of the Hudson Bay Company in the winter of 1766 with a lump of gold, claiming that there is plenty more like it further north at a place called Ox Lake. The outpost’s chief factor, Magnus Norton, dreams of instant riches and launches a secret and perilous expedition to find the treasure and bring it back.
Led by a family of native guides, the party of prospectors includes Norton’s brutish deputy, John Shaw, and Thomas Hearn, the insular and intellectual first mate from the factory’s whaling sloop. During their long journey north, Shaw’s callousness and arrogance lead him to commit an act of sexual violence whose disastrous consequences will only fully emerge once they reach their final destination. There, amidst the bleak beauty of the Barren Grounds, as Norton’s carefully crafted plans begin to fall apart and the brutal arctic winter starts to descend, Hearn is forced to make a choice that will define his character and determine his future forever.
Utterly captivating, White River Crossing transports us back to the furthest edges of the eighteenth-century British empire where two radically different worlds―indigenous and European―collide with calamitous and deadly results.
Ian McGuire grew up near Hull and studied at the University of Manchester and the University of Virginia, USA. In 2007 he co-founded the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing. He is the author of Incredible Bodies, the 2016 Man Booker-longlisted novel The North Water for which he won the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award, and The Abstainer. White River Crossing is his latest novel.
