This is an interesting, well-written novel by an accomplished Newfoundland writer. It combines three stories. One is set in during World War II, and focuses on a deserter from the navy, who is on the run in backwoods Newfoundland. Another story centers on, Nancy Shanawhdit, the last known native Beothuk, who died of tuberculosis in 1829. The third focuses on a forensic pathologist at Cambridge, U.K., whose life is strangely altered by the first two stories, and by her experiences during the genocide in Rwanda. It’s an odd combination, but Bernice Morgan makes them work together with a deceptive ease.
One detail that struck me. The sailors and soldiers in wartime Newfoundland included Newfoundlanders, Canadians, and Americans. Newfoundland had not joined Canada, and for most of the history that preceded that union (in 1948), little love was lost between the two countries. In Cloud of Bone, the Newfoundlanders have regular, and relatively good-natured fistfights and brawls with the Americans, usually over access to dance-hall girls, but the fights with Canadians are far more violent, and far from good-natured. It reminds me of the old Newfoundland folk songs, “Come Near At Your Peril, Canadian Wolf”, and “Thank God We’re Surrounded By Water”.
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