The Back of the Turtle
.jpg) First edition cover | |
| Author | Thomas King |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | fiction |
| Publisher | Doubleday Canada |
Publication date | 2014 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 518 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-1-4434-3162-0 |
| OCLC | 890680218 |
The Back of the Turtle is a novel by Thomas King.[1] Published by Doubleday Canada in 2014,[1] the novel won the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2014 Governor General's Awards.[2]
The novel's central character is Gabriel Quinn, a successful scientist of First Nations descent working for the multinational chemical company Domidion. Returning for a visit to Smoke River, the Indian reserve in British Columbia where he grew up, he finds a virtually deserted ghost town, and soon learns that GreenSweep, the defoliant product he helped to develop for the company, destroyed the local environment and killed or drove away the community's residents.[3] Distraught over his role in the community's destruction, he plans to commit suicide by drowning himself in the Pacific Ocean, but is drawn into a journey of spiritual redemption after jumping into the water to save a group of people from drowning.[3] After the ordeal, he meets Mara, a young woman who lost her family in the Kali Creek crisis. Meanwhile, in Toronto, Domidion CEO Dorian Asher is drawn into a media frenzy as the company is implicated in another unfolding environmental disaster in the Athabasca Oil Sands.[4]
King began writing the novel in the early 2000s while teaching at the University of Guelph,[1] but set it aside for several years to write his non-fiction book The Inconvenient Indian,[1] which won the RBC Taylor Prize earlier in 2014.[5]
References
- ^ a b c d "Thomas King's water treatment". Quill & Quire, September 2014.
- ^ "Thomas King wins Governor General’s award for fiction". The Globe and Mail, November 18, 2014.
- ^ a b "The Back of the Turtle — Thomas King". CBC Books, September 1, 2014.
- ^ "Reclaiming his crown: King's return to fiction offers rich, masterful storytelling". Winnipeg Free Press, September 6, 2014.
- ^ "Thomas King wins $25K RBC Taylor Prize for non-fiction". CBC News, March 10, 2014.
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