In the Boreal Wilds

The far northern reaches of Audrée Wilhelmy’s Quebec pulse with humus, lichen, roots, and creatures, with death and decay, with birth and the strong current of the Farouk River. Spring turns to summer and summer to fall, before an icy grip envelops the land. Then the cycle begins anew. It is a time before the invention of cars but after the railway has carved a path through the dense forest. And on some lonely shore within this universe, ­members of the Borya family, in Wilhelmy’s previous novel, The Body of the Beasts, roam their lighthouse outpost.

From this familiar hard ground sprouts a new tale, one that could be a sequel to that 2017 work, as there are indeed more beasts, more bodies. Yet White Resin is just as likely a prequel, and it is a longer, more comprehensive text. Once again, Susan Ouriou provides a lyrical translation from the French (this is the second of Wilhelmy’s five books to be published in English). This narrative is also bolder...