An Invitation into the Ancient Forests of Haidi Gwaii
A Room in the Forest, Heather Ramsay. Caitlin Press, 2025.
The most memorable novels are written by authors who spin fiction around their hard-earned experiences, education, and passions. Such is the case with environmentalist Heather Ramsay’s debut novel, A Room in the Forest, a coming-of-age story set in Haida Gwaii, an archipelago off the northern coast of British Columbia surrounded by the volatile waters of the Pacific Ocean. This is not just a story about a young woman struggling to find her place in the world, but also about a place that colonizers once named the Queen Charlotte Islands, where Ramsay lived and worked for many years as a journalist.
It is 1999, and we meet Lily, a nineteen-year-old woman from a small Alberta town who has just completed a college forestry program and recently left an unhealthy relationship. Her determination to accept a job in a logging camp on Haida Gwaii is fuelled not only by an urge to strike out on her own, but by a desperate need to understand her estranged mother, who once lived and worked there.
With resistance from her father, Lily sets out in an unreliable vehicle, with a paper map to guide her. The first challenge she faces, and one that resurfaces throughout this story, is the opposing views of the tree planters she meets along the way. Their convictions about logging and forestry practices clash violently with her chosen profession, and heated debates ensue. Issues surrounding unceded territories, Indigenous rights, the preservation of old-growth forests, and colonialism mingle with attitudes of free love.
When Lily reaches her destination, she enters a world where her understanding of self and the world around her are challenged at every turn, and we meet Haida Gwaii and its people through her eyes. This is where Ramsay’s impressive ability to pull her readers into the setting and transform the natural environment into an antagonist really shines, as Lily learns of Indigenous myths and legends that help explain this unique environment.
Polarities exist throughout this narrative. For Lily, the most profound thing is the ancient forest, before and after loggers move in. Lily “thought of all the beauty she’d seen. Skirting amber-coloured streams and mounds of moss. The criss-crossed cedar boughs at the base of some giants” collide with the aftermath of a clear-cut. “The pitch-blood smell. She couldn’t deny that it felt violent to be in such a freshly cut place.”
Life in a tough and unfriendly logging camp pushes her to the limit as she attempts to heal her broken heart and come to terms with her recent decision to terminate a pregnancy. And, after learning through her brother that the man she calls Dad is not her biological father, she is even more determined to learn about her mother. But Lily is not the only one seeking information and answers about her parentage. Chaz, son of a Haida mother and white father, is also seeking his own version of truth. Their attraction for one another shines, while others around them struggle to cope with unrequited love and loneliness — the kind that can only be healed by the solitude of the majestic forests that cradle them. Ramsay’s characters are nuanced by the ache of wandering hearts and yearnings that may never be satisfied. Their imperfections make them especially relatable to readers.
One of the most endearing parts of this account of life on Haida Gwaii is the detailed, and often poetic, attention Ramsay devotes to the descriptions of wildlife: “A white-hooded eagle banked on the current, its yellow talons lowering like landing gear. Shrieking seagulls made plays at some rotting thing left by the tide, then scattered at the eagle’s descent.”
This is a nostalgic story that will resonate with anyone who hit the road at an early age, looking for their place in this messed-up world. With the reality of a road trip, before cellphones and GPS, Ramsay crafts a thought-provoking account of life in the late 1990s, with references to bands such as AC/DC setting the mood in the wheelhouse of a fishing boat during a fierce storm, “as the following sea walloped them from behind.”
Past and present collide as clear-cut practices are crippled by protests to preserve the old-growth forest, endangered species, and Indigenous artifacts. The narrative is a tapestry of challenging issues and subtle themes, including the protection of ancestral lands, women’s reproductive freedom, Indigenous territorial rights, and — at its core — capitalism and its quest for profit at all costs.
Skilfully executed, A Room in the Forest is the story of a conscientious and intelligent young woman who is hungry for truth in all she encounters, even at the risk of being alienated by her peers. Ramsay, as brave as her protagonist, pulls her readers into the mystical splendour of an old-growth forest being ravaged by logging companies, as she explores themes of loss, belonging, and the clash of paradigms that exist all around us.
— Deborah Vail’s book reviews, author interviews, short fiction, and personal essays can be found at vailwrite.ca.
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