Bride of New France - Softcover

Desrochers, Suzanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143173391 ISBN 13: 9780143173397

Publisher: Penguin Canada, 2012

Synopsis

Laure Beausejour grew up in a dormitory in Paris surrounded by prostitutes, the insane, and other forgotten women. With her friend Madeleine, she dreams of using her needlework skills to become a seamstress and one day marry a nobleman. But in 1669, Laure and Madeleine are sent across the Atlantic to New France as filles du roi. The girls know little of their destination, 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.

This haunting first novel explores the challenges that a French girl faces coming into womanhood in a brutal time and place. From the moment she arrives, Laure is expected to marry and produce children with a brutish French soldier who can barely survive the harsh conditions of his forest cabin. But through her clandestine relationship with Deskaheh, an allied Iroquois, Laure discovers the possibilities of this New World.

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

BRIDE OF NEW FRANCE is a gorgeous historical debut, in no small part because Suzanne Desrochers’s superb imagination brings this period of Canada’s story to vivid, vivid life. - Joseph Boyden, Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning author of THROUGH BLACK SPRUCE

Suzanne Desrochers has given us a compelling story and fascinating heroine in Laure, a woman who manages to survive the extraordinary perils of marrying the Canadian wilderness. - Susan Swan, author of WHAT CASANOVA TOLD ME

Suzanne Desrochers brings a novelist’s eye to a subject ... which is deeply embedded in the mythology of French Canada and ought to be better known in English Canada. Hers is a bold and intimately imagined recreation. - Philip Marchand, author of GHOST EMPIRE

BRIDE OF NEW FRANCE is the best piece of historical fiction I’ve read in a long time. Desrochers’s painstaking research is evident throughout, and that, along with her creativity, make the characters, situations and details of this book ring true. - Telegraph-Journal

A moody, beautiful piece of historical fiction ... Like the best of historical fiction, the novel rewards us with knowledgeable and intriguing details ... Desrochers’s writing sustains a good pace: it is at once melancholic and engaging, consistently delivering skilful turns of phrase. - Winnipeg Free Press

A meticulously researched, lyrical tale ... BRIDE OF NEW FRANCE succeeds in bringing history to life. Laure Beauséjour’s story adds a great deal to our understanding of the period. - National Post

“Suzanne Desrochers, a trained historian ... paints a picture of daily life in New France that is strikingly new—and not pretty ... As much as her feeling for Laure and her companions gives the book heart, professional discipline keeps it real. It is a powerful combination.” - The Globe and Mail

“Graceful.” - Maclean’s

“The novel does an excellent job with sensory details ... The various settings—the Salpêtrière, the boat that takes the women to Canada, and New France itself—are finely drawn ... an excellent look at the struggles for existence and the struggle for meaning in what can be a terrifying life.” - Ottawa Citizen

“Desrochers’s descriptions are vivid and unforgiving ... Laure’s story weighs heavily on the reader, but in her, Desrochers has given history’s silent filles du roi a voice.” - Quill & Quire

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Canada
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0143173391
• ISBN 13: 9780143173397
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320