Prairie Fire
Friesen fills the pages with an energy that is intense and compelling, and this energy spills over into tales of humour and scandal. Read more...


ForeWord Magazine
March/April 2008

One of life’s most perilous journeys is the one taken upon the road of self-discovery. Bernice Friesen has mapped one such voyage with distinction in The Book of Beasts. Read more...


The Globe and Mail
December 1, 2007

The Globe & Mail lists it Feast of Firsts and Coteau’s The Book of Beasts tops the charts. Read more...

It's said of some novels that they beg to be filmed. The pictures Friesen makes are a cinematographer's dream, from her glancing close-up of an eye wound to a sweep across Irish fields: "green rolling shoulders, hips, bellies and breasts of land." But it's hard to imagine how a camera could make it more real. Friesen makes us witness, makes the breath catch with how she sparks and fills the mind's eye, stirs the spirit. Read more...


Planet S
November 8, 2007

The Book of Beasts is not a Saskatchewan story by geography, but rather a thematically universal tale, and one that benefits immensely from Friesen’s unique prairie voice. Read more...


Winnipeg Free Press
October 14, 2007

Friesen writes authoritatively from the point of view of a young man living in rural Ireland in the late '60s. None of which would be "write what you know," as Friesen was female, raised in Rosthern, Sask., and is 10 years older than her main character.

And it is precisely because of these wholly convincing leaps of the imagination that The Book of Beasts is such a great success. Read more...