Contours

In Landscapes of Silence, two narrative streams flow over the Arctic topography that Hugh Brody returns to again and again. The first is a story he has avoided telling all his life, about his upbringing in a Jewish household in Sheffield, England. The second is the story of Qallunaat’s impact on Inuit. Putting these narratives into conversation — making connections between them — was something Brody long resisted. It was only through the act of writing this book that he came to acknowledge and accept that they belong together.

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Brody, the British anthropologist and former holder of a Canada Research Chair at the University of the Fraser Valley, is meticulous and precise about the naming of names. Not only does he name complete families he first encountered in the...