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Before there was Kate Beaton \, \;New York Times \;bestselling cartoonist of "Hark! A Vagrant!" fame\, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons\, specifically M abou\, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches\, fiddles\, and Gaelic folk songs. Her first full-length graphic n arrative follows Beaton after university as she heads out west to take adv antage of Alberta&rsquo\;s oil rush\, part of the long tradition of East C oasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in t he homeland they love so much. With the singular goal of paying off her st udent loans\, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.
\nArriving in Fort McMurray\, Beaton finds wor k in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world&rsquo\;s largest oil companies. Being one of the few women among thousands of men\, the cul ture shock is palpable. It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan\ , isolated worksite for higher pay. She encounters the harsh reality of li fe in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discu ssed. Her wounds may never heal.
\nBeaton&rsquo\;s natural cartoonin g prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth v ehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife\, Northern Lig hts\, and Rocky Mountains. "Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands" is more tha n a memoir\, it&rsquo\;s also an untold story of Canada: a country that pr ides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneous ly exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.< /p>\n
About the Author: Kate Beaton was born and raised in Cape Breton\, Nova Scotia\, Canada. After graduating from Mount Allison University with a double degree in History and Anthropology\, she moved to Alberta in sea rch of work that would allow her to pay down her student loans. During the years she spent out West\, Beaton began creating webcomics under the name "Hark! A Vagrant"\, quickly drawing a substantial following around the wo rld. The collections of her landmark strip "Hark! A Vagrant" and "Step Asi de\, Pops" each spent several months on the "New York Times" graphic novel bestseller list\, as well as appearing on best of the year lists from "Ti me"\, "The Washington Post"\, "Vulture"\, "NPR Books"\, and winning the Ei sner\, Ignatz\, Harvey\, and Doug Wright Awards. She has also published th e picture books "King Baby" and "The Princess and the Pony". Beaton lives in Cape Breton with her family.
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