[Among the native people who became important to Boyden was Francis Pegahmagabow, a sniper credited with killing 378 Germans during the Great War, who is fictionalised as the sharpshooter Peggy in the novel. Pegahmagabow was the chief of the Parry Island reserve near where Boyden's mother now lives, and Boyden grew up with his grandchildren.] Francis looked at being a sniper as a job, neither with happiness nor sadness, ... To him it was like trapping and he was very good at it. But Canadians have completely forgotten him.