For years, Annie Proulx was intrigued—and cowed—by the idea of writing a multicentury epic inspired by her Canadian ancestors. A vanishing forest helped her conquer those fears and complete the 713-page novel this year at age 80.

Her ancestor Jean Prou came over from Anjou, France, around 1666 as a domestic servant for a seigneur, or feudal lord, of a settlement on the St. Lawrence River east of Quebec City. After Prou completed his service, he was granted 3 acres of woods—land which he then set about clearing.

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