In this humourous and refreshing collection of short stories, David Thompson reveals the charm and grit of life in the Yukon. Talking at the Woodpile is a masterful blend of fact and fiction, history and the contemporary and intriguing stories that begin as long as 10,000 years ago. An unsuspecting miner discovers a frozen carcass while digging for gold. After much to-do about the origin of the gigantic creature, the mammoth and its unfortunate victim are laid to rest by the local First Nations community.
In a moment of wry humour, Thompson describes a small town rivalry that ends when a firewood thief blows his fireplace sky high, to the delight of his victimized neighbours, and in the collection's title story "Talking at the Woodpile," two long-time friends unwittingly challenge each other to a talking duel, which ultimately leads to a nasty case of frostbite, and an even nastier case of cold shoulder.
In his first collection of short stories Thompson portrays life in a small Canadian community, weaving his characters in and out of each other's tales and in and out of the history that shaped the great Canadian North.