Barkskins

By Annie Proulx

Written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx, the author of The Shippings News and the short story Brokeback Mountain, Barkskins is a historical fiction exploring deforestation and humans’ relationship with trees and forests.

Barkskins is an epic ecological saga about the demise of the great forests, through the eyes of a vivid gallery of characters.

The story begins in North America in the 17th century and follows the bloodline of two French men for the next 300 years. Both families’ lineage are tied with deforestation, natural diseases, and destruction of ecosystems due to greed and a desire for wood exploitation.

It truly is an astonishing, yet peculiar book that will leave you with a new perspective of trees.

Perhaps the most powerful line in the book: “My life has ever been dedicated to the removal of the forest for the good of men.”