Crummey uses this story as the framework for his imagination, weaving lives, backstories, and connections between the settlers and the officials – the historical figures about which at least something is known. In a strange, poignant act of reconciliation, her abductors returned her body to lands of her people so that she would rest-in-peace with the remains of her husband and child (both of whom died during her kidnapping). Her brief existence ended with death from tuberculosis less than a year after her abduction. The violent acts aside, the revelations of past actions and lives, as well as those of each individual’s true character – through their actions, allegiances, and convictions – bring a reckoning to each and upend the fragile community irrevocably. By the end of the novel’s ten-year trajectory (with various flashbacks as far back as the 1760’s), no one’s life is left intact.Īt the heart of the novel is the as-true-as-can-possibly-be-known story of Demasduit (aka Mary March), a Beothuk woman kidnapped from her people and kept with the English on the coast and into St. As one would expect (and as is well documented in the history of Newfoundland and of the Beothuk), none of these encounters were pleasant or without tragic incident. the English), take several expeditions up the (aptly named) Exploits River for deliberate encounters of various purposes with the Beothuk peoples. Throughout this time, the inhabitants, with some support and encouragement from the powers-that-be (i.e. River Thieves tells of various people and happenings on the Northeast coast of Newfoundland between 1810-1820.
His excellent treatise on historical fiction – Most of What Follows is True – is a masterful piece about the dangers of treating fiction as fact, and the responsibilities of both readers and writers to be wary of the dangers. All of his stories have a historical basis, but he is consistent and clear in his acknowledgement and warning to readers that the novels are fictional and works of imagination.
Michael Crummey is a Newfoundland writer (funny how that seems more correct than to say Canadian writer) whose work is consistently terrific – creative, surprising, with exceptionally clear characters and evocative language.
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