Annie Proulx

Una trepidante epopeya que recorre tres siglos de venganzas, infamias y aventuras, con la explotación maderera como telón de fondo.A finales del siglo XVII, René Sel y Charles Duquet, peones contratados para cortar madera, desembarcan en Canada, conocido entonces como Nueva Francia, con un magro contrato para trabajar en durisimas condiciones en las tierras de un despota colono frances. Mientras Duquet, astuto y taimado, cae enfermo y escapa de esa esclavitud para acabar dedicandose al comercio de pieles y, finalmente, de madera, Rene, sensible a su entorno, se queda en la plantacion y sobrevive a su amo, unido a una india mayor que el. Pese a que los destinos de ambos se anuncian tragicos, sus sucesores, a lo largo de tres siglos, seguiran ligados a lo quecuando sus antepasados llegaroneran unos bosques sin limites, aparentemente inagotables.El bosque infinitosigue a los intrepidos descendientes de Rene y Charles hasta la actualidad, en un viaje a traves de Norteamerica, Europa, China y Nueva Zelanda: una aventura llena de peligros, venganzas, aniquilacion cultural y amor por las tradiciones indias, en una novela que explora no solo las relaciones entre los pueblos (indios y colonos; franceses, ingleses y norteamericanos; Oriente y Occidente), sino tambien la implacable destruccion de la...

One of the greatest American writers' Independent From Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize---winning author of The Shipping News and "Brokeback Mountain," comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking down of the world's forests. In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, Rene Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a "seigneur," for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters - barkskins. Rene suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a Mi'kmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years - their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand, under stunningly brutal conditions; the revenge of rivals; accidents; pestilence; Indian attacks; and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse. Proulx's inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid - in their greed, lust, vengefulness, or their simple compassion and hope - that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable and compelling American writers, and Barkskins is her greatest novel, a magnificent marriage of history and imagination.

Un romanzo breve che si concentra nella descrizione psicologica dei due personaggi principali, e dei numerosissimi che girano loro attorno, e nella messa in scena degli spazi aperti e spopolati del Wyoming, cosi come degli atteggiamenti, i pregiudizi e i valori della sua gente.

Ambientato nel desolato dopoguerra degli anni Cinquanta, il romanzo racconta le vicende di una famiglia di agricoltori del Vermont destinata ad una lenta dissoluzione. Sospettato della morte accidentale della sua amante, Loyall, il figlio maggiore, abbandona la fattoria e percorre l'America da costa a costa, in solitaria fuga, tra cercatori d'oro, indiani, scopritori di fossili preistorici e cacciatori. La sorella Mermelle, buffa ed ingenua creatura, realizza il suo sogno con un marito trovato per corrispondenza. Intanto a casa il padre padrone da fuoco al granaio per incassare l'assicurazione, e, scoperto, si impicca.

Quoyle e un giornalista di terz'ordine che vive a Brooklyn. Un giorno viene licenziato e sua moglie gli telefona dall'Alabama per dirgli di trovarsi un'altra donna, lasciandolo solo, senza soldi e con due figlie a carico. Ma quando il mondo sta per crollargli addosso, Quoyle decide, una volta tanto, di optare per una scelta coraggiosa: con le due figlie prende il primo traghetto per Terranova, per andare a vivere ai confini della realta, in un paese coperto di neve quasi tutto l'anno. Qui, tra mille affanni, Quoyle riesce ad aprire un giornale per i pescatori e rifarsi una vita.

From Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain, comes her masterwork: an epic, dazzling, violent, magnificently dramatic novel about the taking down of the worlds forests.In the late seventeenth century two penniless young Frenchmen, Rene Sel and Charles Duquet, arrive in New France. Bound to a feudal lord, a seigneur, for three years in exchange for land, they become wood-cutters barkskins. Rene suffers extraordinary hardship, oppressed by the forest he is charged with clearing. He is forced to marry a Mikmaw woman and their descendants live trapped between two inimical cultures. But Duquet, crafty and ruthless, runs away from the seigneur, becomes a fur trader, then sets up a timber business. Proulx tells the stories of the descendants of Sel and Duquet over three hundred years their travels across North America, to Europe, China, and New Zealand, under stunningly brutal conditions; the revenge of rivals; accidents; pestilence; Indian attacks; and cultural annihilation. Over and over again, they seize what they can of a presumed infinite resource, leaving the modern-day characters face to face with possible ecological collapse.Proulxs inimitable genius is her creation of characters who are so vivid in their greed, lust, vengefulness, or their simple compassion and hope that we follow them with fierce attention. Annie Proulx is one of the most formidable and compelling American writers, and Barkskins is her greatest novel, a magnificent marriage of history and imagination.

Annie Proulxs highly acclaimed, international bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.