Louisiana, 1704, 20 young women arrived from Paris as wives for some of the migrants. Clarke tells the story of one of these women and her charismatic but treacherous husband whose lives become entwined with that of a young boy, Auguste. An absorbing read which compellingly evokes this hostile colony of swamps and marshes, its unbearably humid summers and freezing winters, pervaded by the shadowy presence of the Indian tribes and the looming threat of the English.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 59 Winter 2011 ) |
