Pearly Everlasting

Pearly Everlasting is born in 1920 in a Canadian lumber camp where her father is the camp cook. At the same time, her father finds an abandoned bear cub they name Bruno. Pearly’s mother breastfeeds both infants and treats them like siblings. The sensation this causes brings a historian who is collecting backwoods ballads and folk tales. She interviews Pearly’s mother on several occasions, taking pictures that later appear in magazines and on the lecture circuit. All is not well in the camp, and when the overseer, a mean-spirited man disliked by most of the workers, is killed, his nephew is quick to blame Bruno, stealing the bear and selling him. Pearly sets off on her only trip “outside” to find Bruno and bring him home. She meets with a world of trouble but finds kind souls who help her rescue her brother. Poet and novelist Armstrong (Pye-Dogs) paints a vivid picture of the rough life in lumber camps of the time, deftly capturing the nature of life in the forest and the love of a girl for her family.