The Reckoning of Boston Jim
About the Book
Longlisted for the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize at the 2008 BC Book Prizes
The colony of British Columbia, 1863. Boston Jim Milroy, a lone trapper and trader with an eidetic memory and a tragic unreckoned past, has become obsessed with reciprocating a seemingly minor kindness from the loquacious Dora Hume, a settler in the Cowichan Valley of Vancouver Island. Dora’s kindness and her life story both haunt Boston Jim, and his precise recollections inspire his attempts to buy something suitable for her in return. In The Reckoning of Boston Jim, his search eventually leads him to the gold rush town of Barkerville on the trail of Dora’s capricious husband Eugene—the one thing, after all, that she really wants.
Reviews
“A complex and evocative exploration of the repayment of ethical debts and the power of human memory in forming personal identity.” —Canadian Literature
“Dazzling debut novel… Deeply historical but with a strong contemporary approach and solid storytelling, it’s the sort of book that makes other novelists jealous.” —Robert J. Wiersema, Vancouver Sun