Sixteen years later Louis Riel would be dressing himself again … to be hanged by his neck until he is at last, perfectly, dead. O my God have mercy.

So begins Rudy Wiebe’s powerful portrayal of Louis Riel, the mystic revolutionary of the Northwest, and Gabriel Dumont - the savage as he calls himself - the great buffalo hunter who becomes Riel’s commander-in-chief.

With the same epic scope and inspired vision that he brought to The Temptations of Big Bear (winner of the Governor Generals Award for Fiction), Wiebe recreates an agonizing chapter in Canadian history which can never be forgotten - the explosive world of the North West Rebellions and the characters of the two men who led them.

Written with powerful clarity and compassion, The Scorched-Wood People is an immense achievement, a brilliant exploration of the faces of prophetic vision, the morality of politics and the nature of faith.