Bush Runner

By Mark Bourrie,

Book cover of Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson

Book description

WINNER OF THE 2020 RBC TAYLOR PRIZE * "Readers might well wonder if Jonathan Swift at his edgiest has been at work."-RBC Taylor Prize Jury Citation * "A remarkable biography of an even more remarkable 17th-century individual ... Beautifully written and endlessly thought-provoking."-Maclean's

Murderer. Salesman. Pirate. Adventurer. Cannibal. Co-founder of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Bush Runner as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is the story of an early fur trader in the Canadian wilderness in the mid-1600s. What a tale!

Pierre is 14 when he wanders from his fort hunting ducks with two friends, only to be surprised by an Iroquois war party. His friends are killed, but because of his extraordinary good looks, something the Iroquois admired, he is saved and adopted by an Iroquois family far away from Trois Riviere Fort.

How this man survived his own life is beyond understanding. He learns to speak Indigenous languages, dresses, and acts like an Iroquois warrior, and only escapes back to…