Voyageurs FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review from Discover Great New Writers
Often, when encouraging readers to try a new writer, we encounter resistance. For some reason, certain readers believe they earn points for reading the tried-and-true classics of literature, points that contemporary literature will not accrue. Well readers, take note: Voyageurs is a 21st-century classic, and Margaret Elphinstone is a writer to be reckoned with -- a brilliant historical novelist.
Somewhere within the opening pages of Voyageurs, it ceases to be merely a book and becomes a time machine, transporting readers to the Canadian wilderness at the advent of the 19th century. The principal vehicle of this invigorating journey is a young British Quaker, Mark Greenhow, who leaves his family farm in northern England, crossing the Atlantic in search of his sister, who is missing after an elopement with an undesirable outsider. Mark's determined devotion to his sister is undiminished by the obstacles he faces, and he negotiates his survival in the wilderness with its dangerous inhabitants: beleaguered Native Americans, territorial fur traders, suspicious warriors, and spies. As war between a fledgling America and the motherland erupts again, the New World becomes a place where allegiances and identities must be proved and tested; Mark Greenhow's integrity is rock solid and fully convincing. Elphinstone's writing is fluid, vivid, and compulsively readable. Travel with Voyageurs, and discover a new world, full of treasure and promise. (Fall 2004 Selection)
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The year is 1811 and the fledgling U.S. empire is about to embark on war with Britain. Mark Greenhow, a young, peaceful Quaker, leaves northern England to find his sister, Rachel, a missionary missing and presumed dead in the wilds of wartime Canada. As a result, this thoughtful, earnest young man is thrown into a world of roughneck fur traders, British spies, and embattled Native Americans while struggling to survive in deepest Canada. Along the way, his religious convictions and familial loyalty are tested by the passion evoked in him by a beautiful young woman he encounters in his travels.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Presented as a manuscript discovered by the author in the attic of her country house in the North of England, this meticulously crafted, self-reflexive historical novel tells the story of Mark Greenhow, whose Quaker family once owned the house. In 1811, Mark's younger sister, Rachel, while doing missionary work in Canada, met and married Adam Mackenzie, a Scot associated with the fur trade in North America. Because the marriage was outside the order, Rachael was disowned; subsequently, she lost her baby and mysteriously disappeared into the wilds of what is today northern Michigan. Determined to discover his sister's fate, Mark departs for Canada, where he spends nearly two years sorely testing his Quaker faith through episodes that reveal to him the wider world beyond his placid English countryside. In the meantime, the War of 1812 rages and Mark tries to avoid the kinds of "vain" entanglements that would contradict his beliefs. The inclusion of Mark's own footnotes, lengthy discourses and commentary on his adventures and their aftermath lessens the story's suspense. The novel's interest lies in Mark's struggle to reconcile his faith with the verities and practicalities of the "real world" and in Elphinstone's mastery of early 19th-century argot. (Aug.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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