Bear

Lou is a shy and diligent librarian at the local Heritage Institute. She works monotonous and dusty hours long into the night but she has found nothing - and no one - to go home to. She has resigned herself to passionless sex on her desk with the Director of the Institute.

When she is summoned to a remote island to inventory the estate of Colonel Cary, she takes it as an opportunity to get out of the city, hoping for a industrious summer of cataloguing.

Colonel Cary left many possessions behind, but she didn't expect the bear. She soon begins to anticipate the bear's needs for food and company. But as summer blossoms across the island and Lou shakes off the city, she realises the bear might satisfy some needs of her own.

About the Author

Marian Engel (1933-1985) was born in Toronto, Canada. After winning the Rotary Foundation Scholarship and studying French in Aix-en Provence, Engel worked as a translator in England. Her novels include No Clouds of Glory, The Honeymoon Festival, The Bear, which won the Governor General's Literary Award, and the Lunatic Villas winner of the Toronto Book Award. A passionate advocate for Candian writers, she was one of the founding members and served as first chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, founded in 1973.