Told from the point of view of a six-year-old child, this is the story of Anna and her little brother, Stick, two young children forced to fend for themselves in Algonquin Park after a black bear attacks their parents. A gripping and mesmerizing exploration of the child psyche, this is a survival story unlike any other, and one that asks what it takes to survive in the wilderness and what happens when predation comes from within.
"The Bear is a harrowing and endlessly hopeful novel - an unforgettable hymn to the legacy of familial love. Claire Cameron is alive to mind of the child. Her assured evocation of soon-to-be-six-year-old Anna hits all the right notes: the connective web of association and analogy; the permeable skin between truth and story; the immersive experience of time. This is subtle magic - the transportive
Alissa York, author of Fauna
"An emotional tour de force. Claire Cameron's The Bear offers us an unforgettable child narrator who propels us through a story as unsettling as it is bone-chilling, and as suspenseful as it is moving."
Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me
"The Bear is a taut and touching story of how a child's love and denial become survival skills. Claire Cameron takes a fairytale situation of children pitted against the wilderness, removes the fairies, and adds a terrifying and ravenous bear. I devoured this wonderful new novel in one day."
Charlotte Rogan, author of the national bestseller The Lifeboat
