E-audiobook
Barkskins : a novel / Annie Proulx.
In the late seventeenth century, two illiterate woodsmen, Rene Sel and Charles Duquet, make their way from Northern France to New France to seek a living. Bound to a feudal lord, a 'seigneur', for three years in exchange for land, they suffer extraordinary hardship, always in awe of the forest they are charged with clearing, sometimes brimming with dreams of its commercial potential. Rene marries an Indian healer, and they have children, mixing the blood of two cultures. Duquet travels the globe and back, starting a logging company that will prosper for generations. Proulx tells the stories of the children, grandchildren, and descendants of these two lineages, the Sels and the Duquets, as well as the descendants of their allies and foes, as they travel back to Europe, to China, to New England, always in quest of a livelihood or a fortune, or fleeing stunningly brutal conditions - accidents, pestilence, Indian attacks, the revenge of rivals.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781442370074
- ISBN: 1442370076
- Physical Description: 1 online resource (1 sound file (25 hr., 55 min., 42 sec.)) : digital
- Edition: Unabridged.
- Publisher: [New York, N.Y.] : Simon & Schuster Audio, [2016]
Content descriptions
| Participant or Performer Note: | Read by Robert Petkoff. |
| Source of Description Note: | Hard copy version record. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Indentured servants > 17th century > Fiction. Canada > History > 17th century. Indentured servants. Canada. |
| Genre: | Historical fiction. Epic fiction. Audiobooks. Fiction. Historical fiction. History. Downloadable audio books. |
Other Formats and Editions
Electronic resources
- AudioFile Reviews : AudioFile Reviews 2016 July
So often novels affixed with labels like "saga" and "sweeping" and "vast in scope" can be difficult to break into--their opening chapters slow and setting-laden. Not so with Robert Petkoff's outstanding performance of Proulx's gorgeous BARKSKINS. Petkoff's delivery is mesmerizing, with distinctive voices for generations of well-developed characters, and perfect pacing and incredible accents that give an air of authenticity. Immediately the listener is immersed in a place so colorfully depicted through both the written and spoken word that the time slips past and Proulx's wild forests settle in all around. The novel is indeed a sweeping saga, but Proulx and Petkoff are the duo to make the time seem too short. A transporting listen. L.B.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine - Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews - Audio And Video Online Reviews 1991-2018
*Starred Review* No stranger to densely plotted fiction, veteran narrator Petkoff has succeeded in elevating Pulitzer winner Proulx's most recent masterpiece from a gorgeous historical saga to riveting page-turner, no easy feat for a 700-plus-page epic that spans three centuries. Proulx's deeply moving exploration of the relationship among the wild forests of North America, the native peoples of the continent, and the European settlers is depicted in the complicated and intertwined histories of the Sel and Duke families. The novel is perfectly read by Petkoff, whose mastery of subtle accents and delicate inflection grabs the listener by the throat with the opening sentences and refuses to relinquish that grip until the last sentence. Particularly fine are his vocal characterizations of the large cast, from French voyageurs and the early French and English settlers of Canada to First Nation citizens, characters from various regions in the U.S., and even New Zealand natives. Petkoff's pacing does justice to both the urgency of Proulx's concern about the natural world and the complexity of her storytelling. The brutal treatment of both forests and First Nation people are well represented by the multitude of well-developed characters in both the Duke and Sel families, each perfectly placed in settings so immersive in their description that listeners will feel themselves transported to an earlier era. A listening experience not to be missed. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2016 December #1
It's a pleasure to listen to Petkoff's low-key, straightforward reading of Proulx's ambitious novel that spans 300 years and multiple locations. His reading is well paced and his diction clean and clear. But he faces the near-impossible task of rendering the foreign sentence structures and accented English dialogue of a huge variety of international characters in different periods of history. Proulx's characters are French, English, Spanish, Irish, Scottish, Dutch, Chinese, American, Canadian, and Native American. The pidgin English of Native American men, women, and children is especially distracting for the listener when read aloud, for it turns the listener's focus from the story to the accents. A Scribner hardcover. (June) Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly.
