Man Proposes, God Disposes: Recollections of a French Pioneer

In 1910, young Pierre Maturie bid farewell to his comfortable bourgeoisexistence in rural France and travelled to northern Alberta in searchof independence, adventure, and newfound prosperity. Some sixty yearslater, he wrote of the four years he spent in Canada before he returnedto France in 1914 to fight in the First World War. Like that of so manyyouthful pioneers, his story is one of adventure andhardship-perilous journeys, railroad construction in the Rockies,panning for gold in swift-flowing streams, transporting goods for theHudson’s Bay Company along the Athabasca River. Maturie'smemoir, Athabasca, Terre de ma jeunesse, appeared in France in1972, to a warm reception. Now, in the deft and marvellously empathetictranslation of Vivien Bosley, it is at long last available in English.