He Who Would Walk the Earth by Griffin Bjerke-Clarke
Reviewed by Naomi McKinnon
He Who Would Walk the Earth starts out feeling like a dystopian novel, with a man wandering aimlessly over the hot, dry plains, faint with hunger and thirst, coming across burnt towns and evil men, then elements of fantasy as the man encounters flesh-eating caterpillars, talking crows, and emperors and kings. By the time we near the end of the book, it feels like a fairy tale; the king’s children are under a curse that the king will stop at nothing to find a cure for.
All of this is tied together by the journey—or quest—of one man. Felix Babimoosay doesn’t know who he is, where he is, or where he is going. He is just walking forward, on and on. And as he walks, he encounters obstacles, people, and fantastical events.
“He had not been calling himself Felix Babimoosay for very long, but it seemed better than any other name he had been offered before. His other names had faded into his thoughts as he pushed his feet forward and never looked back.”
Felix spends a lot of time getting into and out of trouble, into and out of captivity. Early on, Felix comes across soldiers of the empire at a newly destroyed village, filling a mass grave with dead bodies. Felix convinces them to let him pass, only to be caught and shackled by two others further away. A talking crow gives him advice about the herbs he can eat to keep him from starving while his captors waste away. At the same time, Felix is being pursued by “the man with the loud voice” who catches up with him periodically. At one point, the man with the loud voice is so enraged by Felix’s evasions that he starts a bloody battle in the village Felix has been staying, striking down innocent people. The pursuit continues underground after they fall down a hole into underground caverns inhabited by talking crows. Here, Felix encounters a stone serpent and a pond whose waters can grant a person “the sight.”
“For the first time since he had fallen down the hole, Felix saw his face. His eyes peered into the water before him, and a face stared back… The boy in the water looked lost and afraid – two emotions Felix had forbidden his heart from acknowledging since walking down the flat plains.”
As Felix’s journey continues, his memories begin to come back to him—memories rife with shame and anger--and the reader slowly gets a sense of who he is and why we found him wandering the plains. Like in a fairy tale, there is both good and evil in this world, as well as within Felix himself; he needs to face this if he is to overcome the final obstacles on his journey.
In an article from Prairie Books Now, Griffin Bjerke-Clarke talks about Felix’s journey as a “deeply personal one both for himself and other Metis who have felt such a strong sense of disconnection from their own heritage.” Bjerke-Clarke goes on to say that “I have been him and I have met him several times in my life – someone looking for belonging and meaning amongst all the chaos.”
He Who Would Walk the Earth is a genre-defying, offbeat story that moves toward a foreseeable conclusion, but is highly unpredictable along the way. In a universal search for meaning, it takes the reader along on a quest in which anything can happen (and it does).
About the Author
Griffin Bjerke-Clarke is a Métis author originally from Oskana (Regina), Saskatchewan, and living in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). From the time he was a small child, Griffin enjoyed making up stories and has always used them to navigate the world; before he could read or write, he would tell his narratives to anyone who would listen. Having grown up distant from his ancestry, Griffin aims to return to his roots, become fluent in Cree and Michif, and return to his community as an educator. Griffin is studying English at the University of King's College. Griffin is a registered citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation.
About the Reviewer
Naomi MacKinnon lives in Truro, Nova Scotia with her family. She is the happy duck behind The Happy Duck Bookshop & Readery where she’s able to share her love of books with whoever walks through the door. Naomi can also be found talking about books online at Consumed by Ink.
Book Details
Publisher: Roseway Publishing
Publication date: April 30 2025
Print length: 160 pages
ISBN-10: 1773637223
ISBN-13: 978-1773637228
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