This is a wonderful, heart-wrenching short book, a fictionalization of the migration of a lone Eskimo Curlew from the arctic to South America and back.

The Eskimo Curlew was once a plentiful shorebird that was highly sought after by hunters because of the succulence of its flesh and the ease with which it could be taken. Usually flying in dense swarms, a score or more birds could be brought down by a single shotgun blast. In some cases so many were killed, that the hunters left those that could not be transported to market in massive piles. And so it came to pass that by the late 19th-century, the Eskimo Curlew population declined rapidly, to the point where it was virtually extinct at the time Bodsworth wrote the book.

Although a work of fiction, this is a book that should be read by everyone who has an interest in Nature and the environment.

Bodsworth is brilliant in his capacity to provide the reader with an emotionally arrousing text, supported by fascinating technical details of bird migration. I cannot imagine that anyone having even a remote interest in birds, nature or life, would not be moved by this great piece.

I doubt anyone will ever see this review, but I thought I'd submit one anyway. Never have I experienced a book that so forced me to put it down every few pages, from its overwhelming sadness and beauty. Merwin, who championed this rare gem, once wrote: "If I were not human, I would have nothing to be ashamed of." Truly, this is the kind of reading experience that cuts to the core of our species' tragic history.

Though this book does get off to a slow start, it can be credited to the mood being established by Gibson. 19th-Century Ontario is a slow moving place, and Gibson's lack of break-neck action serves well here. However, I do agree that the book never does pick up the pace. Instead, we are treated to seemingly random vignettes of strange occurrences in and around the Fraser homestead in southern Ontario. There are certain gothic elements to this tale: family dysfuncion, madness, violence, and a perpetual feeling of uncertainty. That's what this book left me with: I was uncertain about where it would eventually lead. When it got to the end, the feeling persisted. A strange work, but not worth high praise.

I'm currently only half-way through this book because I like it so much I can't bear to finish it. I keep going back and re-reading, even out loud, as one would with poetry. I love the language, the descriptions and, especially, the humor. I started this book immediately after an action-mystery and at first found it slow going as well; descriptions of people, places, things aren't fill-ins--they're the book. So I started over and adjusted myself to the pace. It lit up.

This book does a very good job of informing the reader of a neat idea. I found it to be quite fascinating and would recommend it to anyone interested in engineering.