The Scorched-Wood People

"Sixteen years later Louis Riel would be
dressing himself again ... to be hanged by
his neck until he is at last, perfectly,
dead. 0 my God have mercy."

So begins Rudy Wiebe's powerful portrayal of Louis Riel, the mystic revolutionary of the Northwest, and Gabriel Dumont - "the savage" as he calls himself - the great buffalo hunter who becomes Riel's commander-in-chief.

With the same epic scope and inspired vision that he brought to The Temptations of Big Bear (winner of the Governor General...