Synopses & Reviews
Running two steps ahead of the bailiff, alternately praised and reviled, John James Audubon set himself the audacious task of drawing, from nature, every bird in North America. The result was his masterpiece, The Birds of America. In June 1833, partway through his mission, he enlisted his son, Captain Bayfield of the Royal Navy, and a party of young gentlemen to set sail for nesting grounds no ornithologist had ever seen, in the treacherous passage between Newfoundland and Labrador. Creation explores the short, stormy summer throughout which the captain became the artist's foil, measuring stick, and the recipient of his long-held secrets. It is an exploration of that fateful expedition, a probing and imaginative narrative that fills in a gap in the visionary naturalist's well-documented life.
Review
"This window on the 19th century and one of its most remarkable people is reason enough to enjoy Creation, but Govier's invention of a friendship between Audubon and Bayfield is something even more rare and captivating. There's a mixture of tenderness and frankness between these two men so different by all external qualifications that fulfills her opening promise about the power of fiction to tell truths that history can't approach. She's caught the conflicted ferocity and beauty of Audubon's paintings in a story that rises above the burdens of artistic genius and speaks to us back on the ground." Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor (read the entire CSM review)
Review
"Govier effectively weaves Audubon's correspondence and Bayfield's journals into the narrative, bringing credibility to her tale as she explores the creative process. The resulting novel is both beautiful in its descriptions and unblinkered in its revelations." Library Journal
Review
[Creation] is a marvelous piece of art
. Through a command of period vernacular, astonishing pictorial detail and craftsman-like skill, Govier brings Audubon alive
. Creation is a sprawling novel, teeming with natural abundance, yet delivered in small, intimate scenes
. the reward is deep engagement, the kind that promises a novel a lasting place in the affections of readers. The Toronto Star
Review
Creation is an unusual but enticing novel. Tightly constructed, well researched, and written with the élan that Govier always brings to her fiction, it presents the question -- is the act of creation also an act of destruction? The Sun Times
Review
Govier has crafted a novel of ideas, inseparably layering the ecological and personal. Redeeming both is that most human commodity, hope. Amid stone and black water, Govier finds an indifferent platform for both our ambitions and our hope. The National Post
Synopsis
In this atmospheric and enthralling novel, Katherine Govier tells the story of the world's greatest living bird artist as he finally understands the paradox embedded in his art: that the act of creation is also an act of destruction.
About the Author
Katherine Govier is an acclaimed novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, who was born and raised in Alberta, Canada. She has received many honors, among them the Marian Engel Award and the City of Toronto Book Award for her novel Hearts of Flame.