Lost in the Barrens
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: February 27, 2017 3:12 PM | Last Updated: March 7, 2017
Farley Mowat
Jamie, his uncle Angus and his friend Awasin are fascinated by the Canadian Arctic. Angus is a trapper, and one day the three set out on an adventure to explore the land that has captivated them. But what they face is darker and more dangerous than they every imagined. A classic adventure story from one of Canada's most beloved authors, Lost in the Barrens won the 1956 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature.
Lost in the Barrens is for readers ages 12 and up.
From the book
The month of June was growing old. It had been a year since Jamie Macnair left Toronto, the city of his birth, to take up a new life in the subarctic forests of northern Canada. Beside the shores of Macnair Lake the tamaracks were greening now after the winter's blackness. Out on the lake great loons cried shrilly. As Jamie squatted in front of the log cabin, helping his uncle bale tip the winter's catch of furs, he tried to remember how he had felt on that day, a year past, when he climbed out of the train at the lonely frontier town called The Pas to meet his uncle.
Jamie's uncle, Angus Macnair, had been a trader in the arctic, the master of a sealing schooner in the Bering Sea, and finally a trapper who roamed over the broad forests of the north. To Jamie, his uncle was almost a legend, and when the telegram came from him it filled the boy with excitement.
ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR YOU TO JOIN ME AT THE PAS STOP LETTER WITH DETAILS FOLLOWS. — ANGUS MACNAIR
From Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat ©1956. Published by Random House.