Wild Geese (1925), Martha Ostenso's first and best novel, is an unsparing depiction of life in a farming community in northern Manitoba. With Frederick Philip Grove's Settlers of the Marsh (1925) and Robert J. C. Stead's Grain (1926), it marked an epoch in Canadian fiction, the development of a new note of realism suited to the portrayal of the harsh climate and isolated communities of western Canada in its immediate post-pioneer period. At first, however, the book was scarcely noticed in Canada, and after 1929 Ostenso lived in the United States. Even so, two of her later novels--The Young May Moon (1929) and Prologue to Love (1932)--are set in Canada and demonstrate her continued interest in Canadian subjects.

Ostenso was born to Sigurd Brigt and Lena Tungeland Ostenso at the home of her maternal grandparents in the mountain village of Haukeland, Norway, on 17 September 1900. Her family immigrated to America when Martha was...