Shadows on the rock

Description

In Quebec in 1697, Cécile Auclair keeps house for her widowed father, Euclide, a physician and apothecary serving the French colony. Over the course of a year, father and daughter enter the homes of neighbors, care for the sick and injured, and meet the religious figures, laborers, officials, and vulnerable children who depend upon the settlement’s fragile institutions. Cécile’s effort to obtain shoes for the boy Jacques reflects the practical compassion with which she approaches her inherited responsibilities. Rather than building toward a single dramatic conflict, the novel accumulates closely observed portraits of colonial life, showing how domestic rituals, medical work, faith, memory, and mutual obligation help a transplanted community endure an exacting landscape.

Themes