Empire of Wild is a novel by Cherie Dimaline, published on September 17, 2019, by Penguin Random House Canada.[1]
Synopsis
editThe novel follows a Métis woman named Joan Beausoliel as she searches for her husband, Victor, who went missing nearly a year ago in a Walmart parking lot following an argument between the two of them. She meets Reverend Eugene Wolff, a traveling preacher who bears a striking resemblance to Victor and has no memory of his past. Joan is joined by her twelve-year-old cousin Zeus as she investigates Victor's disappearance.[2] Joan becomes convinced that a conman named Thomas Heiser is a rogaru and tries to free her husband from his control.[3]
Development
editThe idea for the plot of Empire of Wild came to Dimaline when she had gone to a First Nations literary event and had no material prepared for her speech. She instead told a story that her grandmother had told her about the rogarou, a creature from Métis folklore. She later read an article about missionaries coming to First Nations in Canada, and was frustrated by the thought of indigenous preachers encouraging people to give up their land for pipelines.[4]
References
edit- ^ "Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline". Penguin Random House Canada. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
- ^ Carroll, Tobias (2020-07-28). "A Métis Woman's Husband Disappeared — or Did He?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
- ^ Coats, Aaron (2020-07-29). "Finding What's Lost in Empire of Wild". Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved 2021-12-12.
- ^ "A Native Woman Battles Neocolonialism and Werewolves in Empire of Wild". Electric Literature. 2020-11-25. Retrieved 2021-12-12.