Aurélie WilmetÉpinette noire

Kuujjuaq, 18 December 1947. Violette, a pilot flying the airmail between Ontario and Nunavik in Canada’s far north, is preparing to leave on her last trip of the season. The weather is clear and there is no sign of the blizzard that soon descends on the tundra, causing her plane to crash. Trapped in the storm, injured and wavering between sanity and madness, Violette struggles to survive in a strange in-between world.

But as a rescue team sets out to find her, a mysterious creature – a white bear with a brown face – seems to have taken care of her… Unless it’s all an illusion. Or a delusion. A dream born of agony. Aurélie Wilmet is fascinated by Nordic legends, primitive tales and ancient cultures. In this new book, she takes us to Inuk territory at the beginning of the 20th century, to discover the Inuit of Nunavik and a world as yet unexplored.

Part initiation story, part modern tale, Épinette noire explores the links between living beings, humans and non-humans – taking us to the frontiers of reality. Flat tones of colour, desert and snow-covered expanses, black spruce, ice and torrents make up the ominously present landscapes of these powerful pages, taut with the dramatic tension of the story. A deeply moving journey to the edge of the world, for readers eager to be bewitched by the magic of the steppes, in an immersive, sensory and mystical experience.