Bride of New France

August 1, 2012
Desrochers' debut follows a spirited young woman from a grim charity hospital in 17th-century Paris to the equally challenging Canadian wilderness. Snatched from her parents by a law that forbids begging on the city streets, the best Laure Beausejour can hope for as an inmate of Salpetriere Hospital is that her nimble fingers will get her a job with a seamstress, where she can assess single men for their marriageability. She has no interest in the cloistered life, unlike her pious friend Madeleine, who aspires only to become one of the nuns who oversee the hospital's indigent women with varying degrees of severity. But when Laure's ill-judged letter to the king complaining of their treatment results in her being sent to Canada, she persuades Madeleine to join her in the contingent of unruly women destined to atone for their sins by marrying settlers and providing population for New France. The improbable scene in which Madeleine decides to cast her lot with Laure is only one instance of the awkward tone and sketchy motivations that indicate a beginning novelist throughout this oddly conceived and structured narrative. With nearly half the text devoted to Laure's experiences in Paris and the voyage to the New World, the author fails to provide sufficient time and emotional weight for the ordeal in the Canadian wilderness, where the protagonist reluctantly marries an odious fur trader but finds herself drawn to one of the natives the French scornfully call Savages. Desrochers, who drew her fictional inspiration from her research for a masters' thesis at York University on the subject of female immigration, certainly conveys the bleak conditions endured by French settlers, particularly in the stark depiction of Laure facing starvation during her first Canadian winter. But she fails to bring to life any of the characters other than willful Laure, and her self-absorbed heroine is hard to like. Vivid historical background wasted on unengaging fiction.

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June 1, 2012

During the 17th century, hundreds of poor, lower-class women cast out from French society were shipped to the Canadian frontier to marry fur traders and soldiers and bear their children. Desrochers's debut novel illustrates that their exile was not met with excitement or a sense of adventure by these women, but rather with a sense of danger, sadness, and trepidation. Laure Beausejour grew up in the Salpetriere, an orphanage and poorhouse in Paris. Despite dreams of becoming a successful seamstress, Laure is sent to Canada at age 17. The primitive wooded landscape, promises of a long and bitter winter, and tales of savage attacks by the native inhabitants greet Laure when she arrives. She marries but finds love and companionship in the one place that can lead only to heartbreak and deep sacrifice. VERDICT This is a dark tale, and readers shouldn't expect a happy ending, but historical fiction fans will appreciate the rich period details and commiserate with believable characters modeled after the founding mothers of French Canada.--Andrea Brooks, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
Desrochers sheds new light on an all but forgotten chapter in the history of Canada. In the late seventeenth century, groups of impoverished, often orphaned, young women, ironically dubbed the filles du roi, were sent from France to the colonies to become wives of the fur traders and soldiers already settled in the wilderness that was New France. Transported to this primitive and brutally cold new world, Laure Beausejour is married to a crude soldier-farmer, who all but abandons her during the harsh winter. Forging an illicit relationship with Deskaheh, a friendly Iroquois savage, she manages to survive, but at an excruciatingly painful emotional cost. The fascinating backstory propels the elegant but often slow-moving narrative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)