River Thieves
CBC Books | Posted: March 2, 2017 8:20 PM | Last Updated: August 30, 2018
Michael Crummey
River Thieves is a beautifully written and compelling novel that breathes life into the pivotal events which shaped relations between the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland and European settlers. Following a series of expeditions made under the order of the British Crown, the reader witnesses the tragic fallout from these missions as the Beothuk vanish and the web of secrets guarded by the settlers slowly begin to unravel...
Told in elegant, sensual prose, this is an enthralling historical novel of great passion and suspense, driven by the extraordinary cast of characters. (From Anchor Canada)
From the book
It was the sound of his father's voice that woke John Peyton, a half-strangled shouting across the narrow hall that separated the upstairs bedrooms in the winter house. They had moved over from the summer house near the cod fishing grounds on Burnt Island only two weeks before and it took him a moment to register where he was lying, the bed and the room made strange by the dark and the disorientation of broken sleep. He lay listening to the silence that always followed his father's nightmares, neither of the men shifting in their beds or making any other sound, both pretending they weren't awake.
From River Thieves by Michael Crummey ©2001. Published by Anchor Canada.