Patrick Gale based his novel A Place Called Winter on the life of his Grandfather, an Englishman who emigrated to Canada in the early 1900's. It's the story of an arduous journey to stake a claim in the barren Saskatchewan prairie, learning to farm and build from scratch, and surviving the climate.
Harry Cane followed the path of every middle-class man at the time, marrying and going into business. When he falls into an affair with another man, a prison offence, the shame and scandal force him to flee and the recruitment offer to homestead in Canada is accepted. A Danish man befriends him on the way over, helps him find farm work and a claim of land, but Harry must find out how to build a home and plant the land by trial and error. The bulk of the novel is the settler's life from dawn to dusk, the physical labour and the isolation. Harry finds help from his neighbours, a brother and sister a step ahead of him, and a deep friendship grows. The Dane makes another appearance years later and threatens to destroy everything Harry has created - a disgusting villain who gets a very satisfying commupence.
Patrick Gale used family diaries and stories to build a picture of Harry Cane, his grandfather's actual name. Although the characters are memorable and the writing intelligent and beautiful, it helps to have an interest in homesteading and the life of settlers as the majority of this novel is the daily progress of planting, harvesting, and the farming life in between.
Enjoyable, I'm ready to read Gale's other novels.
2015 / Tradeback/ 368 pages
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