Barkskins

by Annie Proulx

In every life there are events that reshape one’s sense of existence. Afterward, all is different and the past is dimmed.

She had answers to the most untoward questions,

Of Charles Duquet there was nothing except Outger and Doortje. His life had come and gone, and even here among the people he had imagined as a family he was forgotten.

“A man—if he’s any good—makes eight axes a day. If he’s no good he can make ten or twelve.”