White River Crossing by Ian McGuire review colonial greed drives a doomed hunt for gold

"At its best his work blends the unsparing violence of Cormac McCarthy with a bleak lyricism reminiscent of Welsh poet RS Thomas. Both The North Water, set onboard a whaling ship dispatched from Hull to Baffin Bay in 1859, and The Abstainer, inspired by the hanging of three Irish rebels in Manchester a decade later, probed the grisly underbelly of Victorian imperialism, harsh worlds where a man's life on its own is nothing much to talk about."

"In White River Crossing, McGuire travels across the Atlantic and back another 100 years to the Prince of Wales Fort, a remote trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company in what is now northern Manitoba. Founded by royal charter in 1670 and granted sole right of trade and commerce across some 1.5m sq km of territory, the British venture was established to exploit the indigenous fur trade, but investors also hoped for other profitable discoveries, particularly silver and gold."

White River Crossing takes place in the frozen winter of 1766 at the Prince of Wales Fort, a remote Hudson's Bay Company trading post in northern Manitoba. The fort's chief factor, Magnus Norton, receives a rock veined with gold that sparks his greed. Norton secretly sends deputy John Shaw and two company men, together with two Dene couples hired as hunters, guides and cooks, on an expedition 600 miles north to claim the supposed gold fields. Norton conceals the true purpose, telling others the mission seeks copper. The mission exposes imperial exploitation, deceit and the dangerous pursuit of wealth.

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