Another new interview with LP re: The Black Wolf from the Montreal Gazette
Louise Penny’s upcoming novel imagined Canada as the 51st state — then reality caught up
March 13, 2025
Louise Penny didn’t expect her decision to go unnoticed, but she hadn’t anticipated the sheer scale of the response. Her announcement on Facebook that she was cancelling her U.S. book tour in protest of Donald Trump’s escalating trade war and rhetoric toward Canada set off a storm. “That post has been viewed by a quarter of a million people, and it continues to rise,” she says in an interview. She scrolls through some of the responses, which are mostly supportive, she says, though some lash out. By her estimate, about 60 per cent are from Americans, 40 per cent from Canadians, with a few from elsewhere.
“A couple are nasty, telling me to stay out of politics. You know, ‘Stay in your lane. Little girl, little Canadian girl,’” she says. She pauses, then adds wryly: “The great nation of free speech — as long as you agree with them.” I reached Penny, 66, via FaceTime. She lives in Knowlton, Quebec, but is in London, U.K., visiting her publisher. It’s a stopover on her way back from a research trip to Hong Kong. Funnily enough, I tell her, I’m in Montreal but I’m originally from London. “Montreal wins, frankly,” she quips, punctuated by her infectious laugh. She explains that her decision to cancel the tour came incrementally. First, she withdrew from a major event at the Kennedy Center about a month ago in response to Trump’s takeover of that institution. Then came the tariffs and more inflammatory language. That was the final straw. “You can’t go to a country that’s declared war on you,” she says firmly. ‘Can you believe what’s happening?’ So Penny told her publisher that she couldn’t do it. “It wasn’t going to be a debate.” She underscores the significance of the decision: her U.S. book tours draw thousands per event, providing a boost to early sales and helping land books on bestseller lists. It will probably cost her publisher a fortune, yet she says they backed her decision. At a time of heightened Canadian patriotism, Penny’s stance may not seem out of the ordinary. Anger over Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats has fuelled boycotts of U.S. goods and booing of the U.S. anthem in hockey arenas across the country. It even revived the Liberal Party of Canada. But abroad, too, Penny tells me, reactions to Trump have been sharp. She recalls dinner companions in Hong Kong being “appalled.” And in London, the same. A hairdresser, she says, turned to her: “Can you believe what’s happening?” “It’s like I’ve woken up on a different planet that looks the same, and yet things have changed,” she says. “It’s scary.” She says she has been thinking about history a lot lately and about how nations are invaded. “At what point do you take it seriously?” she asks. But here’s the twist: Penny had already written this script. Her upcoming novel, The Black Wolf, imagines a powerful group attempting to make Canada the 51st state. She wrote it a year ago. Too close to reality One of the book’s themes, she explains, is how resource-rich countries like Canada are becoming “apex nations.” Penny sees a shift in global power. Once, the wealthiest nations were those with the best technology and industries. Now, she argues, power belongs to those with resources — minerals, oil and water.
“What happens when a nation that is losing a lot of these things, including water, sees how much we have? What’s it going to do?” she asks. She flips the question: “What would you do? Would you break into your neighbour’s home to save yourself and your family?” “Probably,” she answers. Still, she couldn’t believe Trump would turn on Canada so aggressively. “Why would he? He negotiated the last trade deal himself. He called it the ‘best deal ever’,” she says. “Now it’s the worst?” That was when it clicked. “Never underestimate him, his degree of insanity, and that what he is threatening could very well happen,” she says. Her new book, which will come out later in 2025, carries on the story of The Grey Wolf, released in 2024. She points to Three Pines, the fictional village at the heart of her bestselling novels. “It’s a symbol,” she explains. “Americans fleeing tyranny wouldn’t know when they’re across the border, but the way they would know is that if a community planted three pines together. It meant that you’re safe. So that’s where my village got its name.” “Ironically,” she adds. “Now we’re doing the same thing. ‘Come to Canada, you’ll be safe.’ Come to Three Pines, where there is decency.” Instead of the U.S., she will end her tour at the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which straddles the Canada-U.S. border. She invites Americans to cross over. Despite everything, Penny isn’t cutting ties completely. Initially, she refused to do virtual events for U.S. readers. But after reconsidering, she says she might do a few. She believes she must speak up, though she acknowledges her position allows her to do so. She can afford to take a stand. “We all the Americans and the Canadians are of a like of mind that we are friends and that this insanity in Washington does not get to define our relationships. We get to define it,” Penny says. “So it’s a big tent. Come on in.”
Source: https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/article809305.html
Does she have a crystal ball? Nah, she’s one sharp woman.
I have so much respect for that woman. And I can’t wait to read that book!