Where The River Narrows

About this book

The story of Where the River Narrows begins with the mysterious figureof Antonio Tremblay the mythical coureur de bois who traps in the forestssurrounding Chicoutimi Qubec. Of mixed blood himself he takes two wives: thesaintly Marie-Ange who gives him two daughters and Marie Kapesh hisclandestine "wood wife" whose children remain hidden in the forest.Marie-Anges younger daughter the beautiful Marie-Reine becomes thematriarch of a boisterous tightly knit family whose children grand-children and great-grandchildren must chart their own way in a changing Qubec. Where the River Narrows sweeps effortlessly across the centuries fromthe French royal court to the founding of Qubec City in 1608 from the Spanishflu pandemic of 1918 to the FLQ Crisis. Against this rich panorama the dailylives of the Tremblays unfold. Marie-Reines children grow up marry havetheir own children who in turn spread beyond Qubec to a wider world. It isLucie a child of the -60s facing a troubled marriage who begins the longjourney back bringing to life a history she had glimpsed only in schoolbooksand discovering a past peopled by saints and sinners weighed down by historyand religion. From the beginning Lucie senses that there are long-buriedsecrets shaping the fortunes of the Tremblays secrets that draw her into thedark forests of her ancestors. This passionate novel resonates with joie de vivre as the Tremblaysfight and reconcile mourn and worship hate and love one another. Ranging fromthe wilderness of eighteenth-century New France to the -60s faux farmhouses ofsuburban Sainte-Foy Where the River Narrows echoes the many voices andvisions that have shaped a unique part of Canada.