The Back Of The Turtle
A Novel
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4.2 • 52 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
This is Thomas King’s first literary novel in 15 years and follows on the success of the award-winning and bestselling The Inconvenient Indian and his beloved Green Grass, Running Water and Truth and Bright Water, both of which continue to be taught in Canadian schools and universities. Green Grass, Running Water is widely considered a contemporary Canadian classic.
In The Back of the Turtle, Gabriel returns to Smoke River, the reserve where his mother grew up and to which she returned with Gabriel’s sister. The reserve is deserted after an environmental disaster killed the population, including Gabriel’s family, and the wildlife. Gabriel, a brilliant scientist working for DowSanto, created GreenSweep, and indirectly led to the crisis. Now he has come to see the damage and to kill himself in the sea. But as he prepares to let the water take him, he sees a young girl in the waves. Plunging in, he saves her, and soon is saving others. Who are these people with their long black hair and almond eyes who have fallen from the sky?
Filled with brilliant characters, trademark wit, wordplay and a thorough knowledge of native myth and story-telling, this novel is a masterpiece by one of our most important writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
King, whose non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian won both the RBC Taylor Prize and the B.C. National Award this year, returns to literary fiction with this timely and thought-provoking novel. In the small town of Samaritan Bay, scientist Gabriel Quinn is preparing to kill himself after committing an unthinkable crime. He encounters the few remaining residents of this veritable ghost town, mysterious and unsettling characters who seem to occupy a space between reality and fantasy. Far away, amongst the towers of Toronto's Bay Street, CEO Dorian Asher scrambles to preserve his company's image in the face of several environmental disasters. King deftly juxtaposes the varieties of Canadian experience, contrasting the shining city with diminishing coastal town, the lives of the uber-wealthy with those of aboriginal Canadians, whose lives seem to count for very little when there is a profit to be made. King uses his trademark blending of traditional aboriginal beliefs and stories with the Western literary canon to create a haunting narrative of life, death and the destruction of nature. Allusions abound, incorporated into the story with King's often absurdist wit, walking a fine line between humor and heartbreak. The result is both an intimate story of grief in the face of loved ones lost and a searing criticism of current apathy toward looming environmental disasters.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
A wonderful story touching on themes of lose,the environment and homecomings.
Sonny is best character
Attaboy sonny u da mannnnnnnnnnnnn