Through Black Spruce

Legendary Cree bush pilot Will Bird lies in a coma with his dutiful niece, Annie, by his side. As narrators James Jenner and Ali Ahn deliver this lyrical tale of loss, violence, and frontier justice, they take the listener into a rustic world populated with wild animals and even wilder, unpredictable people. At times, Jenner affects a tone of wonder mixed with "Old West" grit as Bird recounts the grandeurs of the natural world. Ahn's capable voice takes on a tone of sadness as Annie worries about her sister, a well-known model who has taken up with unsavory characters in New York City. Ultimately, Annie leaves her uncle's side and goes east to search for her sister, bringing about the story's overly dramatic but satisfying ending. R.O. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

December 8, 2008
Following up on the success of Three Day Road
, Boyden delivers the powerful story of former bush pilot and Cree native Will Bird. The novel opens with Will in a coma, with his niece Annie, who just returned from an eight-month excursion in search of her sister, by his side. Narrated by Will and Annie, the story backtracks to tell of Will's fight to keep his bush-country Indian life alive and protected while he suppresses painful childhood memories (and befriends an old bear). Annie, a skillful hunter and animal trapper, dictates her escapades after rushing off to New York City in pursuit of her sister, Suzanne, a model who has shacked up with a member of the narcotics-smuggling Netmakers family. As Will struggles to survive and Annie reintegrates into the isolated bush, the two stories dovetail as the Netmakers cross paths with Will. Though the incongruously melodramatic denouement doesn't fit with the richly textured narrative preceding it, the novel as a whole is an intelligent, multilayered accomplishment, and well worth reading.