Safety in bear country

Safety in Bear Country tells the story of Serena Palmer’s twenty-second year. At a time when she thought she would be making a living in Toronto as an artist and as an independent adult, the economic times and her emotionally fragile state due to the demise of a romantic relationship, prove obstructive. Instead, she lives in the basement of her parents’ home and works for the town’s largest employer, a mental institution. Here she embarks on an internal quest for meaning and a truer understanding of love. Specifically, as the novel’s action shifts through Australia and then to Northern Canada, ending with her near-death and shamanistic spiritual transcendence, Serena explores the contradictions that exist between love and fear: in order to ever fully love, one must make oneself vulnerable at the deepest level. And, in order to ever make oneself vulnerable, one must conquer fear. In this way, fear and love are inextricably connected. Here in lies the irony of the title: Safety in Bear Country.