Savage Lands - Softcover

Clark, Clare

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846553512 ISBN 13: 9781846553516

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2010

Synopsis

Louisiana, 1704, and France is clinging on to a swampy corner of the New World with only a few hundred men. Into this precarious situation arrive Elizabeth Savaret, one of a group of young women sent from Paris to provide wives for the colonists, and Auguste Guichard, the only ship's boy to survive the crossing. Elizabeth brings with her a green-silk quilt and a volume of Montaigne's essays; August brings nothing but an aptitude for botany and languages. Each has to build a life, Elizabeth among the feckless inhabitants of Mobile who wait for white flour to be sent from France; Auguste in the 'redskin' village where he has been left as hostage and spy. Soon both fall for the bewitching charisma of infantryman Jean-Claude Babelon, Elizabeth as his wife, Auguste as his friend. But Babelon is a dangerous man to become involved with. Like so many who seek their fortunes in the colonies, he is out for himself, and has little regard for loyalty, love and trust. When his treachery forces Elizabeth and Auguste to start playing by his rules, the consequences are devastating.

Rich in tactile detail, heart-wrenching in its portrayal of people clinging on to their humanity against the brutality of nature and commerce, this is historical fiction at its best. So absorbing is Clare Clark's recreation of eighteenth-century Louisiana that the reader won't want to leave it, even though the unstable ground on which New Orleans is putting down its first foundations proves far from hospitable.

About this title

Product Description:

RO60141029. SAVAGE LANDS. 2010. In-8. Broché. Bon état, Couv. légèrement pliée, Dos plié, Intérieur acceptable. 376 pages. Cartes en noir et blanc au dos des plats. Tranche salie.. . . . Classification Dewey : 420-Langue anglaise. Anglo-saxon

Review:

"Vivid with historical details, characters intense with drama. A story to lose yourself in,satisfying read for lovers of period fiction"
--The Times

`... intricately plotted and thick with intrigue, Savage Lands gives us an insight into an overlooked era.' -- TLS

"Clare Clark's story and her history ring absolutely and very sadly true." --Guardian Review

'Richly and densely textured, serious, intelligent, passionately written, and with more than a hint of gothic...'
--Sunday Times

`Clark writes vivid, vigorous prose and her descriptions ... are very well done ... Clare Clark is a writer of promise' --Literary Review

‘What a vivid and complete world Clare Clark has created in Savage Lands – an extraordinary feat of imagination, and a sustained feat of recovery. Clare Clark is one of those writers who can see into the past and help us feel its texture. I am intensely curious to know what she will do next.’ --Hilary Mantel

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1846553512
• ISBN 13: 9781846553516
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384