Northern Bull by Michelle Swallow

"A joyful and hilarious journey of love and friendship as a quirky cast of characters sets out to find a missing moose head."

Maggie is 32 years old, single, and living next door to Jacques, who keeps stealing from her woodpile. She has less than 24 hours to finish writing a five-minute piece of erotica for Yellowknife’s sexy storytelling competition, but she’s been hit with a serious case of writer’s block. Jacques, meanwhile, has woken up hung over with two strange women in his kitchen, his phone buzzing with the news that his buddy is gunning for him over a gigantic trophy moose head he supposedly stole last night. For the life of him, Jacques can’t remember what happened, but he has until midnight to put it right. He’s also flat broke, and he has more than a little bit of a crush on his neighbour.

Northern Bull is a romantic comedy wrapped around a mystery (who did take the moose head?) accompanied by plenty of slapstick, and more innuendo than steamy stuff. (The most explicit scenes are the ones Maggie is drafting in her many failed attempts at literary smut.) The book makes the most of its setting in and around the Northwest Territories’ capital city. It’s chock full of sled dogs, skidoos, shotguns, woodstoves, weasels, beaver mitts and one highly impressive lynx fur hat. While these things do exist in the North, it isn’t the case that most Northerners use all of these things every single day, but that’s okay—it’s all in the tradition of romance novels set in picturesque or exotic locales, and part of the fantasy element of the genre. For that matter, it reads somewhat like a CBC television regional sit-com in written form (hint, hint).

The book also incorporates lesser-known aspects of life in the North, like substandard housing, excessive partying, an enduring obsession with participatory community burlesque shows, and a phone-in radio programme where people sell second-hand goods. (To be honest, I don’t actually know if these are also common elements of life down South, but I don’t seem to hear them talked about that often in mainstream novels about folks in Toronto.)

Michelle Swallow presents the reader with a panoply of classic Northern characters, from the legendary “bushman,” to the inveterate bar star, and the small-time bullshitter … er, ahem, that is, outfitter. The book kicks off with the main characters in full party mode, living a lifestyle where it’s normal to regularly find yourself blinking as the lights come on in the bar at closing time. This all seems fun at first, but by the three-quarter mark it’s become clear that there’s a darker side to the non-stop drinking and drug use. This arc is deeply characteristic of Northern lives, and it’s to Swallow’s credit that she’s able to build a light, entertaining romance novel around such deadly serious material.

The storyline unfolds in a compressed interval of a single day, at some points pushing credibility as to how much hungover humans can actually accomplish before lunchtime. The deadline forces tension and the action becomes quite frenetic. There is a physical comedy element to many of the scenes, and lots of lines that made me snort, like this one: “He’d never heard of northern strippers, thought they all came from the south, like fruit and tourists.” Or this bit, where Jacques is reflecting on his attraction to his neighbour:

“He thought about Maggie, her dark curls and wide smile, chopping wood in her long johns. “She’s probably a lesbian,” his mom had said. He wasn’t sure about that, but it didn’t seem like they had much in common. She was some sort of environmentalist. Constantly exercising and recycling.”

Jacques is part of a group of guy friends, none of whom really seems to have it even slightly together at this point in their lives. Swallow portrays them as variously off the rails, but you can’t help rooting for them—whether to actually accomplish their ridiculous money-making schemes, or to reform and settle down, it’s hard to say—but for everyone to come through safely and well. I won’t give spoilers, but this is a romantic comedy, and you can expect a happy ending … which is, of course, a new beginning.

About the Author

Based in Yellowknife, Michelle Swallow is a long-time resident of the Northwest Territories and has lived in Norman Wells, Aklavik, Inuvik, and Hay River. Her non-fiction book, The Mackenzie River Guide, has helped paddlers travel down Canada’s longest river for over a decade. Northern Bull is her debut novel.

About the Reviewer

Dawn Macdonald lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she grew up without electricity or running water. She won the 2025 Canadian First Book Prize for her poetry collection Northerny. She posts weekly on Reviews of Books I Got for Free or Cheap (on Substack), as well as reviews for journals and The Seaboard Review of Books.

Book Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Freehand Books

• Publication date ‏ : ‎ Jan. 21 2026

• Language ‏ : ‎ English

• Print length ‏ : ‎ 252 pages

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1997534053

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1997534051