New France

A feverish man awakens in a strange lodge, tended by a mysterious woman speaking an unknown tongue. ‘Who am I?’ he demands. The unanswered question will haunt him to his last breath.

The year is 1900. New France, a semi-autonomous region of French-speaking Quebec, is on the cusp of profound change. The once unquestioned authority of the church is being challenged by political liberalization. Deeply held traditional values are under threat from the forces of industrialization and modernization, and separatist passions are stirring. The clash of competing values is about to explode into violence.

Amidst this turmoil the wounded man is befriended by Hugo Gagnon, one of the men who found him near death from a gunshot wound in the woods. The pious Gagnon consults a bible the stranger was carrying and gives him the name Jacob Wheeler. But in spite of proffering friendship, Gagnon is hiding a dark secret. Unable to recover his memory, Wheeler sets about the long and tortuous process of building a new identity and a new life. He marries into a family of staunch habitants and becomes a prosperous businessman. But just as he begins to accept himself, his whole world comes crashing down and he is forced once again to confront the question, ‘Who am I?’

‘New France’ is Book 4 of the epic saga ‘Monuments of Grass’. For lovers of Michener and Follett, and those curious about the origins of present-day North America.