Barkskins

Barkskins is Annie Proulx's ambitious novel spanning nearly 300 years of North American history, from the late 17th century through the early 20th. The narrative follows two French-Canadian woodcutters - Duke and René - whose lives become entangled with the vast forests of Québec, Acadia, and beyond. What emerges is an epic exploration of how ordinary people's decisions ripple across generations, shaping the landscape and culture of a continent.

Proulx traces the descendants of these men through centuries of environmental transformation, colonial conflict, and personal struggle. The novel moves fluidly between timelines, weaving together stories of trappers, settlers, loggers, and their families as they confront the relentless clearing of old-growth forests and the consequences of resource exploitation. Her prose captures both the brutal beauty of the wilderness and the human cost of building a nation through extraction and settlement.

The book reflects Proulx's deep research into period detail - language shifts, historical events, and the material conditions of frontier life all feel authentically rendered. Rather than a linear narrative, Barkskins operates as interconnected stories that reveal larger patterns about ambition, inheritance, and ecological change across centuries.

• Published 2016 by Scribner
• Approximately 720 pages
• Follows multiple generations and timelines
• Focuses on French-Canadian and colonial North American history
• Historical fiction with ecological themes

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