Having enjoyed two previous novels by Patrick Gale ("Notes from an Exhibition" and the marvellous "A Perfectly Good Man", I passed on this his latest book as a story about early settlers in remote areas of Canada was not appealing. However, it became a choice for our book club so I had to read it. And I'm now so glad I did. This is a brilliant piece of fiction based on fact. Harry Cane emigrates to the new world in the dawn of the twentieth Century. The author should know, Harry was his great grandfather who left a comfortable and prosperous life in England under a cloud.
The narrative of his time in England followed by his new life is cleverly broken by brief interludes from the future in a mental hospital. This works incredibly well. We are allowed to make up our minds about Harry from his early life, let me just say he is the most unlikely candidate to make a life in a homestead in such remote territory. There are some wonderful characters on both sides of the Atlantic including one villain who keeps popping up an inopportune times. Although the prose is perhaps a little lacking in modern construction, the descriptions of place and events is absolutely first class.
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