Vaulting through time to another flashpoint in the long struggle between Indians
and Europeans, William T. Vollmann's visionary fictional history now focuses on
the white explorers of the mid-1800s, desperately dreaming of forging a Northwe
st Passage. As Sir John Franklin embarks on his fourth Arctic voyage, he defies
the warnings of the native people, and his journey ends in ice and death. But hi
s spirit lingers in the Canadian north, where 150 years later, in 1990, Inuit el
ders dream of long-gone seal-hunting days and teenagers sniff gasoline. And when
a white man seduces and leaves pregnant a young Indian woman, he becomes Frankl
in reincarnated, bound for the same fate. Vollmann's vivid characters and landsc
apes weave together the stories of the past and present to live out America's on
going tragedy of greed, ignorance, and violence.
