Nine Bells for a Man

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

In Peter Unwin’s debut novel, two brothers-in-law embark on a journey
to the family home of one of them. Their turn-of-the-century trip,
extending from the parched prairies of central Saskatchewan to the
dwindling timberlands of eastern Ontario, will last more than three days
and cover more than 1500 miles via three different trains, a horse-drawn
wagon, and a paddle wheeler. One of the men, 25-year-old Robert Pachal,
rides stoically committed to his family duty but lamenting the growing
distance between him and his beloved wife and infant daughter in
Ebenezer, Saskatchewan. The other traveler, a 28-year-old drayman named
Herman Brown, rides in a coffin (the victim of a mysterious hunting
accident) to his final resting place among his ancestors in Schutt,
Ontario.

As he transports his unlikely cargo, Pachal learns about life beyond
his familiar horizons. He listens as a “blind pigger” recounts the
tale of the Great Miramichi Fire of ’25, which ended with winds so
high, “We’re talking fish hanging from goddam trees.” He is aghast
at the raucous swearing of the McLachlin loggers as they carouse in the
Balmoral Hotel tavern. He stares in wide-eyed astonishment at the
flaming tongue of a mint edition Norther Ready Automatic Cigar and Pipe
Lighter. He overhears talk about fast women who smoke in public in the
Palm Lounge of the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. And he discovers that the
tolling of seven bells signifies the death of a woman, while nine bells
indicates the death of a man.

Though Pachal’s patrician beliefs get rudely shaken, they’re never
shattered. He soldiers on, confident that returning his
brother-in-law’s corpse to his kinfolk is noble and rewarding,
although uncertain what his reward will be. What it might be we begin to
suspect when Pachal and a dozen other souls enter the last leg of the
journey—a ferry ride on a steamboat heading into the gale force winds
of Lake Kaminiskeg. Unwin has crafted his captivating story from a
myriad of historical sources and documents; Nine Bells for a Man
deserves a wide audience.