Lands and Forests
CBC Books | | Posted: May 10, 2019 4:28 PM | Last Updated: May 10, 2019
Andrew Forbes
Escaping government-sanctioned flooding, obsessing over camera-equipped drones, violently mourning a lost brother, discovering a new passion in fencing, watching a wildfire consume a whole town: the stories in Lands and Forests survey the emotional landscapes of women and men whose lives, though rooted deeply in the land and their small communities, are still rocked by great cultural change. These are raw, honest character studies reminiscent of the work of Alexander MacLeod and Lisa Moore, but with a style and energy all their own. (From Invisible Publishing)
From the book
They began moving the houses in 1954. Those too large to be moved they would set alight, as the families and their neighbours gathered to watch.
Believe me when I say that it was a burdensome thing to live in a condemned town, a place soon to cease its existence. That every casual act carries an urgency, a fire, when your home's destruction is a foreordained event.
"They're doing it for electricity, Holland," my employer, Lester Smart, said to me one lunch hour as I stood outside the dairy's garage. "Electricity and cars. The Americans are after all that Labrador iron. Ford and GM, I mean. And where they're concerned you can bet Ottawa will bend over backward to accommodate."
From Inundation Day by Andrew Forbes ©2019. Published by Invisible Publishing.