Friday, February 20, 2009

To be Reading... Library hold


On A.S book club, we are going to read; Paradise,
By, Joan Elizabeth Goodman.
It is based on a true story. When explorer Captain Jacques Cartier returns to France in 1536 with stories of great wealth in Canada, Sieur de Roberval sets sail for the Canadian wilderness. Among his passengers are his niece Margurite; her serving lady, Damienne; and a stowaway, Marguerite's great love, Pierre. During the voyage Pierre is discovered and cast into the sea and Marguerite and Damienne are abandoned on the Isle of Demons. Miraculously, Pierre lives, swimming ashore into Marguerite's waiting arms. Thus begins the trio's fight for survival. As the newcomers battle the mosquitoes (the true demons of the island) and the natives, they struggle to find food and shelter, and their paradise becomes a prison from which there is no escape. The author has fleshed out Marguerte's story from several historical sources, altering it to be more hopeful but no less amazing.