The Wisdom of Bones

Bone sharp is a 19th-century term used to describe paleontologists. Its use in the title of Edmonton writer and poet Tim Bowling’s third novel is both a descriptor for Charles H. Sternberg (1850–1943), its fossil-hunting protagonist, and a metaphor for the emotional dramas that unfold in the story. Sternberg was an American who searched for dinosaur fossils in Alberta during the early part of the 20th century. For the most part the novel is set in the badlands of the Red Deer River valley during World War One, but this historical and geographical terrain is contextualized by a deeper sense of time and environment that comes from the fossils themselves.

The story begins with a description of Sternberg’s grief over the loss of his daughter Maud, who had died some years earlier. Maud is reincarnated as Lily, a young member of the expedition, who is in love with Scott Cameron, a protégé of Sternberg’s, who is absent because he is fighting in Europe. At one point Lily...