Bear

About this book

The winner of the Governor Generals Literary Award for Fiction Marian Engels most famous and most controversial novel tells the unforgettable story of a woman transformed by a primal erotic relationship. Lou is a lonely librarian who spends her days in the dusty archives of the Historical Institute. When an unusual field assignment comes her way she jumps at the chance to travel to a remote island in northern Ontario where she will spend the summer cataloguing a library that belonged to an eccentric nineteenth-century colonel. Eager to investigate the estates curious history she is shocked to discover that the island has one other inhabitant: a bear. Lous imagination is soon overtaken by the islands past occupants whose deep fascination with bears gradually becomes her own. Irresistibly Lou is led along a path of emotional and sexual self-awakening as she explores the limits of her own animal nature. What she discovers will change her life forever. As provocative and powerful now as when it was first published. Includes a reading group guide. From the Hardcover edition.