“An important book in my life. Mitchell was the quintessential young person’s writer. He put you on the Canadian prairie during the Depression, and, even for me, a Canadian kid from the West Coast in the ’60s and ’70s, his work was relevant and engaging, intricate in its detail, and possessed by a familiar yearning.”  

“This novel is a Jewish-Canadian classic. Even if you can’t relate, you do. You laugh, you wince, and you can’t forget lines like, ‘A boy can be two, three, four potential people, but a man is only one. He murders the others.’”  

“A book that captured a moment, unique for its grit and hopelessness. I have read it several times: when it was first published, as a current reflection of that era; and again as a much older reader. It still holds my interest, and impresses me as a snapshot of a new, lost generation.”  

“A gripping, brutal recounting of the clash between First Nations cultures (the Iroquois and the Huron) in the 17th century Great Lakes region, the all-powerful trade companies, and Catholic missionaries desperately out of their element. It compares to works such as Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.”

“I could pick any of Davies’ books—from the Deptford Trilogy to this classic from the Cornish Trilogy—as a favourite novel. This is a book you want to revisit every couple of years. Davies was, and is, a giant of Canadian letters.”