Novel
Agaguk
Yves Thériault · 1958
Synopsis
Agaguk, a young Inuit hunter, leaves the village of his father Ramook to start a family alone on the tundra with Iriook. Having come to trade his furs, he kills Brown, a white trader who will only give him alcohol in exchange. A policeman, Henderson, comes to investigate in the village. Iriook gives birth to a son, Tayaout. Later, a great white wolf attacks Agaguk and leaves him disfigured. Little by little, Iriook asserts herself in front of him and makes him change.
Context
The novel appeared in 1958, co-published in Quebec City by the Institut littéraire du Québec and in Paris by Grasset. The author had drawn on two accounts by Oblate missionaries, and his wife, Michelle Thériault, rewrote whole passages of it; the action was originally to take place in Florida. He was later reproached for claiming a great knowledge of the North, and the anthropologist Bernard Saladin d'Anglure judged that he had taken very great liberties. Translated into seven languages, the book was brought to the screen in 1992 by Jacques Dorfmann.
Who it is for
A novel of more than three hundred pages, which closely follows the life of a couple on the tundra; it should be read knowing that its picture of the North has been disputed.
Prizes and reception
Prix de la province de Québec in 1958; according to Paul Perron, the most popular novel in Quebec since the Second World War.
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The pages consulted to check this page.