The Voyageur: 'Marvellous work of art' John Banville

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'Exceptionally vivid and intense' Sunday Times

'A marvellously dark yarn' The Spectator

'Swaggering debut' Daily Mail

But everyone expects at least a little bit of deception as they go through their days and nights, and there's a chance of winning nevertheless, so many choose to play

Alex is a motherless stockboy in 1830s Montreal, waiting desperately for his father to return from France. Serge, a drunken fur trader, promises food and safety in return for friendship, but an expedition into the forest quickly goes awry.

At the mercy of men whose motives are unclear, Alex must learn to find his own way in a world where taking advantage of others has become second nature. But will he have to abandon his humanity to survive

The Voyageur is a brilliantly realised novel set on the margins of British North America, where kindness is costly, and where the real wilderness may not be in the landscape surrounding Alex but in the deceptive hearts of men.

Reviews

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'An exceptionally vivid and intense tale of a young man struggling to find freedom amid people eager only to exploit him' - Nick Rennison, Sunday Times

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'Spins a marvellously dark yarn ... Written with the scope of Annie Proulx and the verve of Peter Carey, The Voyageur is a most diverting read' - Rachel Seiffert, The Spectator

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'Rum-soaked, laudanum-addled and at the mercy of amoral ne'er-do-wells, a "skinny and feeble and fragile" anti-hero heads into the wilds of 1830s British North America in Carlucci's swaggering debut' - Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

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'The Voyageur is a marvellous work of art, brutal, tender and deeply moving. It has many of the qualities of Cormac McCarthy at his ferocious best, without the excesses of the late American master. The narrative is set in history, but the novel triumphantly surpasses the constrictions of a genre label' - John Banville

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'A fascinating read ... the characters are pithily described and were fully alive, the places likewise. I was in the virgin forests and the plunging rivers; I was on the filthy beach of Mackinac; in the gross tavern and muddied, choleric streets of York' - Tim Pears

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Author Bio

PAUL CARLUCCI is the award-winning author of three collections of stories. The Voyageur is his debut novel, and his first book to be published outside Canada. He lives in Ottawa.