Past winner of INL Reads!

A land of volcanoes, geothermal pools, and barren wilderness, Iceland is full of mists and mystery.

Bears, wolves, fish, forests, swamps, harsh winters, insect-infested summers, the unpredictable waters of Lake Winnipeg, people disappearing because of forces of nature or forces of the human heart, all provide a wealth of material from which Turnstone Press's first published author draws his inspiration.

A bear whose thoughts fill a fisherman's mind like ink in water, an ancient sturgeon who rescues a fair maid from drowning, and mischievous Christmas sprites who protect a poor girl from a nightmarish marriage: these and more tales combine a canon of Icelandic folklore with the landscape and wildlife of Canada for a truly absorbing reading experience.

In this collection of stories, W.D. Valgardson creates new legends, capturing the settlers' experience in New Iceland: how they tried to explain the unexplainable, and preserve the memories of loved ones for future generations. Blurring lines between reality and fantasy, Valgardson continues to be one of Canada's foremost storytellers

W.D. Valgardson was born in Winnipeg in 1939 but spent most of his childhood in Gimli, an Icelandic community on Lake Winnipeg. He is chair of the writing department at the University of Victoria. His novel Gentle Sinners (1980) won the Books in Canada first novel award, and he has written books for children and young adults and four collections of stories. "A Matter of Balance," a winner in the 1980 CBC Canadian Literary Awards, is included in What Can't Be Changed Shouldn't Be Mourned &34;1990".

W.D. Valgardson's profile page

• Winner, INL Reads!
• Short-listed, Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher

What the Bear Said is a masterful array of tales by a skilled artist and storyteller. Accessible and engaging, it artfully combines elements of the tale or fable with the modern short story to re-interpret the lives of the early Icelandic Canadian settlers of Manitoba. A multicultural cross-genre work, it heralds a new hybrid form of Canadian literature, well worth reading and emulating.

Prairie Fire Masterful array of tales

What the Bear Said is a marvellous collection of fables. The stories are immediate, the characters, both human and supernatural, crackle with life, as myth, harsh reality and superstition touch the lives of Icelandic immigrants, often in thrilling and heartbreaking ways.-W.P. Kinsella, Author of eight collections of Silas Ermineskin Stories

W.P. Kinsella Advance Praise for What the Bear Said

Valgardson's prose is as spare and sparse and sparkling as the Icelandic sagas that clearly inspire it.

-Tom Oleson

Winnipeg Free Press

“A magical, thoughtful meditation on the bones of storytelling, What the Bear said showcases Valgardson's uncanny ability to meld deceptively simple prose, folktales and psychological suspense. From the inky darkness of a bear's thoughts to the trek through troll-infested mountains, his stories quietly bring the reader back to a place we only remember in dreams.? — Eden Robinson, author of Monkey Beach

Eden Robinson Advance Praise for What the Bear Said