How a road trip to Canada in the ’80s inspired Richard Ford’s latest novel
“I loved that landscape,” Richard Ford says. “What struck me was how different it was from just where I was living at the time, across the border in [Missoula] Montana. It didn’t shock me, it pleased me, in a way. There was something about the landscape up in Saskatchewan … that I had such an affinity for. I think it just settled on me in a profound way.
“When an American — this American, anyway — is in Canada, you’re very aware that you’re in a completely different place,” he adds. (Illustration by Steve Murray)

