Beautifully translated by Wayne Grady, The Straw Man is a dazzling novel, mixing historical narrative (it begins in 1759) and magic realism. Poliquin, author of Black Squirrel and Obomsawin of Sioux Junction, weaves a tale that is by turns wildly funny, tragic, and violent, and satirizes the church, the military, and governments at all levels.

The story begins during the final siege of the walled fort of Quebec, on the eve of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. A troupe of hapless, starving French actors perform, but the citizens of Quebec have more serious things on their minds than badly acted plays. The players are befriended by Benjamin de Saint-Ours, the straw man of the title, a murderous mercenary who turns out to have a heart and a curious mind.

After the English conquest of the French, the novel moves into territory familiar to readers of Robert Kroetsch and Gabriel García Márquez. Benjamin is wounded, and wakes seven years later to find himself voiceless, a wealthy property owner, and the father of several children.

The story is told in a variety of voices, and no one is ever quite who they appear to be. The members of the theatre troupe appear again and again in different guises: a man who paints portraits of the dead because the living are too busy to pose for him; a more-or-less priest who excommunicates grasshoppers; an erudite teacher who gives elaborate lectures to an empty classroom. Wildly inventive, The Straw Man is rich with the power of true storytelling.