Overview

The Woods: A Year on Protection Island is a book of non-fiction stories that probes and witnesses the unique and sometimes unsettling atmosphere of small town-island life in the Georgia Strait. The measure of one's success here doesn't rely on status or income, but on the skillful handling of neighbours, the resourcefulness for survival, and the adaptation to both the rigorous outdoors of the Pacific Northwest and equally challenging human community of need, trade, and negotiated civility. These are stories of the people and families who sought refuge here, for different reasons and with different outcomes: Keith, a cross-dressing retired sea captain who can't overcome the death of his wife; Steve, the contractor who escapes his deaf wife and the silence of his domestic life by perfecting his physical property, using only the loudest of electric chainsaws and lawnmowers from morning until dusk; Cris, the seventy-six-year-old library curator who has recently discovered scotch whiskey and sex again after twenty-five years; and of various other transplants making their way through the murky terrain of living on an island. Like no other community on Earth, this small place is packed with secret corners, eerie histories and a whispering darkness. This is the complicated convergence of human capacities: from homicides (both in the same house, unrelated and years apart) to some of the greatest gestures of generosity, social reform and equality. This is the place of the close-up encounter of who we are stripped of distractions and escapist entertainment; who we are in the woods.

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9780889713291

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Reviews

If you are toying with the notion of island life, McMillan's The Woods is necessary and honest research into the pros, cons and head-banging, eye-rolling panorama of life on a tiny island. --The Vancouver Sun McMillan works to deromanticize the small community. She debunks the myth that the island was originally called Douglas Island, extrapolating the colonial underpinnings of this false history. --Quill & Quire--The Woods The effectiveness of this tale rests on McMillian's talents as a writer. She plods along with a poetic whimsy that feels as though I am listening to an old friend recount the past few months over the phone. ... The Woods is a raw, beautiful, dark and mysterious journey that runs the gamut of emotions, and provides food for thought as you ponder the next big change in your life. --Discorder Magazine The book is rigorously researched and peppered with fascinating tidbits of historical and geographical information; in one chapter, The Curious Myth of Douglas Island, the author muses on the nature of storytelling before moving on to a very thorough investigation of the history of the island's name... The Woods describes an experience of the West Coast with honesty and earnestness that counterbalances idealized odes to the region. --Canadian Literature McMillan works to deromanticize the small community. She debunks the myth that the island was originally called Douglas Island, extrapolating the colonial underpinnings of this false history. --Quill & Quire It's about moving to Protection Island with her husband and small daughter. And it's genius for a number of reasons. It starts in Toronto and does such a wonderful job of capturing the sort of big city stress that so many young families are now dealing with ... and the dreaming of a simpler life. --On The Coast

If you are toying with the notion of island life, McMillan's The Woods is necessary and honest research into the pros, cons and head-banging, eye-rolling panorama of life on a tiny island. --The Vancouver Sun McMillan works to deromanticize the small community. She debunks the myth that the island was originally called Douglas Island, extrapolating the colonial underpinnings of this false history. --Quill & Quire--The Woods

The book is rigorously researched and peppered with fascinating tidbits of historical and geographical information; in one chapter, The Curious Myth of Douglas Island, the author muses on the nature of storytelling before moving on to a very thorough investigation of the history of the island's name... The Woods describes an experience of the West Coast with honesty and earnestness that counterbalances idealized odes to the region. --Canadian Literature The effectiveness of this tale rests on McMillian's talents as a writer. She plods along with a poetic whimsy that feels as though I am listening to an old friend recount the past few months over the phone. ... The Woods is a raw, beautiful, dark and mysterious journey that runs the gamut of emotions, and provides food for thought as you ponder the next big change in your life. --Discorder Magazine It's about moving to Protection Island with her husband and small daughter. And it's genius for a number of reasons. It starts in Toronto and does such a wonderful job of capturing the sort of big city stress that so many young families are now dealing with ... and the dreaming of a simpler life. --On The Coast McMillan works to deromanticize the small community. She debunks the myth that the island was originally called Douglas Island, extrapolating the colonial underpinnings of this false history. --Quill & Quire If you are toying with the notion of island life, McMillan's The Woods is necessary and honest research into the pros, cons and head-banging, eye-rolling panorama of life on a tiny island. --The Vancouver Sun McMillan works to deromanticize the small community. She debunks the myth that the island was originally called Douglas Island, extrapolating the colonial underpinnings of this false history. --Quill & Quire--The Woods

""The Woods is the cure-all to Perfect Island Getaway nostalgia. It's a story of everyday domestic survival, peopled by both loveable eccentrics and possibly murdersome cranks, foregrounding the little-known history of violence on Protection Island. Amber McMillan's writing balances an eye for the unusual and resiliently beautiful with a sympathy for the frailties common to all her islanders."" -- ""Kevin Chong, author of Baroque-a-Nova, Neil Young Nation and Beauty Plus Pity""

Author Information

Amber McMillan is the author of the poetry collection We Cant Ever Do This Again (2015). Her work has appeared in Arc, Contemporary Verse 2, PRISM international, Best Canadian Poetry and other journals across North America. She lives and works on BCs Sunshine Coast.

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