Dominique Demers
Translated by Leonard Sugden

Maïna previous next  Ekstasis Editions

Maina is a young aboriginal woman, growing up in ancient Northern Quebec. Dominique Demers paints an enduring portrait of wide open spaces, the immensity of the North, of the forests and the northern sea. The action takes place 3500 years ago. Maina is a young Indian, the daughter of a tribe named the Nearly Wolves. In the vast landscapoe she travels over, from the forest to the sea, she is obliged to struggle in an environment which is as generous as it is merciless. Finding food and shelter, making clothes, defending themselves and keeping warm, such are the daily tasks of the Nearly Wolves.

Like other members of her tribe, Maina accepts nature's inexorable laws. But what of men's laws? Why tan hides when she is thrilled with hunting? Why submit to the advances of Saito, her betrothed, when she detests him? No, she will never yield.

Bolstered with these convictions and stirred by a need to affirm herself, Maina sets out on a long quest, a search for her own identity. Arrayed with imposing characters and engraved with emotions,sensuality and spirituality, her journey brings her to the lands of the Inuit where she is to experience her meting with Natak, the great hunter of the polar regions.

Wars of agression, ancestral beliefs, racism, intolerance; Maina will quicly learn that men's laws are as cruel as nature's laws. She is to pay dearly for her distinctiveness.

A dense and enthralling narrative, immensely rich in ethnology. A superb voyage to the out limits of the Great Nort 3,500 years ago. A powerful work marked by larger than life passion and ferment.

Now a major independent film!

http://mainathemovie.com/#trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0IS9QE3308

http://vimeo.com/85454497


ISBN 1-896860-57-5
Fiction
240 pages
$21.95
6 x 9
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