Nunavik

A funny, frosty, and fascinating journey from the big city to the wilds of Canada's Far North.

Author Michel Hellman meets with his editor Luc Bosse and casually promises to write a sequel to his best-selling book Mile End. But his newly-hip Montreal neighborhood, with its trendy cafes and gluten-free bakeries, doesn't seem half as inspiring as it used to be, and Hellman instead finds himself fascinated with a vast and remote region of the Canadian arctic that he's never yet been to, as well as the lives of people he has not yet met. Part memoir and part documentary, Nunavik follows Hellman on a trek through Northern Quebec as he travels to the Inuit communities of Kuujjuaq, Puvirnituk, Kangiqsujuaq and Kangirsurk, meeting members of the First Nations, activists, hunters, and drug dealers along the way.

An honest and often funny account of Hellman's journey, Nunavik truly feels personal, with the author acknowledging (and challenging) his own prejudices. While the North has had a profound influence on Canadians' collective identity, it often remains an idea myth rather than reality. Empirical rather than theoretical, Nunavik reflects on the ways our relationship to the North has shaped the cultural landscape.