Savage Lands by Clare Clark
Louisiana, 1704, and France is clinging on to a swampy corner of the New World with only a few hundred men. Into this precarious situation arrive Elizabeth Savaret, one of a group of young women sent from Paris to provide wives for the colonists, and Auguste Guichard, the only ship's boy to survive the crossing. Elizabeth brings with her a green-silk quilt and a volume of Montaigne's essays; August brings nothing but an aptitude for botany and languages. Each has to build a life, Elizabeth among the feckless inhabitants of Mobile who wait for white flour to be sent from France; Auguste in the 'redskin' village where he has been left as hostage and spy. Soon both fall for the bewitching charisma of infantryman Jean-Claude Babelon, Elizabeth as his wife, Auguste as his friend. But Babelon is a dangerous man to become involved with. Like so many who seek their fortunes in the colonies, he is out for himself, and has little regard for loyalty, love and trust. When his treachery forces Elizabeth and Auguste to start playing by his rules, the consequences are devastating. Rich in tactile detail, heart-wrenching in its portrayal of people clinging on to their humanity against the brutality of nature and commerce, this is historical fiction at its best. So absorbing is Clare Clark's recreation of eighteenth-century Louisiana that the reader won't want to leave it, even though the unstable ground on which New Orleans is putting down its first foundations proves far from hospitable.
What a vivid and complete world Clare Clark has created in SAVAGE LANDS - an extraordinary feat of imagination, and a sustained feat of recoveryClare Clark is one of those writers who can see into the past and help us feel its texture. I am intensely curious to know what she will do next. -- Hilary Mantel
The book is vivid with historical details, the characters intense with drama and feeling... A story to lose yourself in, an intense and satisfying read for all lovers of period fiction. -- Sarah Vine * The Times *
Intricately plotted and thick with intrigue, Savage Lands gives us an insight into an overlooked era. * Times Literary Supplement *
Richly and densely textured, serious, intelligent, passionately written, and with more than a hint of gothic... * Sunday Times *
Clark writes vivid, vigorous prose and her descriptions ... are very well done ... a writer of promise * Literary Review *
The book is vivid with historical details, the characters intense with drama and feeling... A story to lose yourself in, an intense and satisfying read for all lovers of period fiction. -- Sarah Vine * The Times *
Intricately plotted and thick with intrigue, Savage Lands gives us an insight into an overlooked era. * Times Literary Supplement *
Richly and densely textured, serious, intelligent, passionately written, and with more than a hint of gothic... * Sunday Times *
Clark writes vivid, vigorous prose and her descriptions ... are very well done ... a writer of promise * Literary Review *
Clare Clark is the author of two highly acclaimed historical novels: The Great Stink (longlisted for the Orange Prize) and The Nature of Monsters. Born in 1967, she graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with a double first in History, and now lives in London with her husband and two children.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781846553516 |
| ISBN 10 | 1846553512 |
| Title | Savage Lands |
| Author | Clare Clark |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2010-03-04 |
| Number of pages | 384 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |