Piau

Narrative history is tricky. There's always a danger that the history audience will find the book lacking academic rigidity and the fiction crowd will find it too dry. Happily, this book manages to find the delicate balance between meticulous research and detail on the one hand and a well written narrative story on the other.

Despite (or possibly because of) growing up in America, I was not terribly familiar with Acadian history. Pierre Belliveau was a folk hero from the mid 18th century who led a group of persecuted francophone Acadians into exile in the Canadian wilderness in search of a better life rather than suffer under English rule.

At roughly 300 pages, the story develops steadily and evenly. I personally had some trouble keeping the characters distinct in my mind - parents, mothers and daughters & fathers and sons often shared names, which made it challenging to keep them straight sometimes.

Beautifully crafted and entertaining, I really liked this book a lot.

Four stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher