The Dream Carvers

E. Jane Philipps is head of the Biology Library at Queen’s University
in Kingston.

Our knowledge of the long-vanished Beothuk of Newfoundland results from
the careful piecing together of archeological evidence, reports of
encounters by early explorers and settlers, and information gathered
from abducted Beothuk who lived for a time with their captors. Joan
Clark accurately and sensitively recreates the world of the Beothuk in
this engrossing historical adventure. Set in 1015, at the time of first
contact, The Dream Carvers tells the tale of a young Greenlander,
Thrand, a member of an expedition to the newly discovered Leifsbudir,
now Newfoundland. Captured by the Beothuk Osweet band to take the place
of a young Osweet man to whose death he contributed, Thrand, called
Wobee by his captors, learns about himself and his own culture as he
gains understanding of and respect for the ways of a different people.
The narrative unfolds through the alternating voices of Thrand and
Abidith, the sister of the murdered youth and a young woman with the
power to enter into others’ thoughts and dreams. The dream motif binds
the threads of past, present, and future, of mythology and reality into
a compelling whole. The novel would provide an excellent complement to
the study of Canadian history and culture. Highly recommended.