Living History
with Tara Gereaux, Hélène Gaudy and Jennifer Chevalier
Hosted by Lucy van Oldenbarneveld
“Jennifer Chevalier has given us not only a gripping story, but also fascinating glimpses of seventeenth century New France with all its terrors, hardships and demonic beliefs. The past is a different country, yet its characters are disturbingly familiar. The Winter Witch is historical fiction at its well-researched best.”
Join our host, Lucy van Oldenbarneveld, for a deep dive into history with three acclaimed authors whose work connects us directly with the past through the lives of remarkable women.
Wild People Quiet by Tara Gereaux brings us to Torduvalle, Saskatchewan, 1946. Florence has created a beautiful life for herself. Her home is immaculate; she is a model employee at Pratt’s Insurance, where she works as a secretary. Her hair is the perfect shade of movie-star blonde. But one morning, everything changes. Florence notices a new group of men at the local diner, Métis workers from out of town, hired on for the season at a nearby farm. And one of them has a connection to the past that Florence has spent her entire life outrunning.
A World with No Shore by Prix Goncourt finalist Hélène Gaudy (translated by Stephanie Smee) begins in the summer of 1930, in Svalbard, Norway. A walrus-hunting boat sets sail for White Island, one of the last lands before the North Pole. The melting ice has revealed bodies and the remains of a makeshift camp. It is the solution to the mystery of the disappearance in July 1897 of Salomon August Andrée, Knut Frænkel, and Nils Strindberg as they tried to reach the North Pole in a hydrogen balloon. Among the remains, some rolls of negatives are found and one hundred images are retrieved. Based on these lunar-like black-and-white photographs and the expedition logbooks, Hélène Gaudy retraces and reimagines this great adventure that was blown off course, weaving in the painfully beautiful love affair of Nils and Anna.
Inspired by the tales of Canada’s Filles du Roi, The Winter Witch by Jennifer Chevalier, examines how lies, arrogance, and ignorance can lead to witch hunts in any society. Two sisters, Élisabeth and Marthe, set sail on a bride ship from Normandy hoping to leave a curse behind them and find better lives in the wilds of 17th-century Quebec, only to meet a mysterious woman who forces them to confront the truth about superstition—and their past.
Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
Hélène Gaudy's participation is made possible by support from:
