Bride of New France - Softcover

Desrochers, Suzanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143173383 ISBN 13: 9780143173380

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2011

Synopsis

In 1669, Laure Beausejour, an orphan imprisoned with prostitutes, the insane and other forgotten women in Paris’ infamous Salpetriere, is sent across the Atlantic to New France as a Fille du roi. Laure once dreamed with her best friend Madeleine of using her needlework stills to become a seamstress on the Rue Saint-Honoré and to one day marry a gentleman. The King, however, needs French women in his new colony and he finds a fresh supply in the city’s largest orphanage. Laure and Madeleine know little of the place called New France, except for stories of ferocious winters and men who eat the hearts of French priests. To be banished to Canada is a punishment worse than death.

Bride of New France explores the challenges of coming into womanhood in a brutal time and place. From the moment she arrives in Ville-Marie (Montreal), Laure is expected to marry and produce children with a French soldier who can himself barely survive the harsh conditions of his forest cabin. But Laure finds, through her clandestine relationship with Deskaheh, an allied Iroquois, a sense of the possibilities in this New World.

What happens to a woman who attempts to make her own life choices in such authoritative times?

 

Bride of New France is a beautiful debut novel that explores a fascinating chapter in Canadian history.

About this title

About the Author:

 

Suzanne Desrochers grew up in the French-Canadian village of Lafontaine on the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario. She currently lives in London, UK, with her husband and son. She is completing a PhD thesis at King’s College comparing the migration of women from Paris and London to colonial North America. She also wrote her MA thesis on the Filles du roi, combining Creative Writing and History, at York University in Toronto. Bride of New France is her first novel.

Review:

"a wholly original example of social history at its best" - John Barber, The Globe and Mail

“a fully imagined but deeply grounded novel” - John Barber, The Globe and Mail

“Bride of New France will not silence critics of the new social history, nor is it meant to. But if they do want to bring the past alive for a new generation, as they typically claim, they could never find a text more likely to engage the minds and imaginations of young people, especially girls, who have grown immune to the conventional narratives.” - John Barber, The Globe and Mail

“A moody, beautiful piece of historical fiction.” - Dana Medoro, Winnipeg Free Press

"A haunting story of a courageous young woman." - Kathleen Grissom, author of the bestselling The Kitchen House

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0143173383
• ISBN 13: 9780143173380
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312