Christie Redfern's Troubles

In the remote Canadian wilderness, a Scottish family tries to make a home. Christie Redfern is ten years old, and her mother is dead. Now she lives with her aunt on a rough farm, surrounded by strangers who speak of her dead parent as though she were a saint Christie barely remembers. The girl finds solace only by the cold brook where she kneels to pray, desperate to feel God's presence and her mother's ghost. This is not a gentle children's tale. Robertson writes with stark honesty about childhood grief, the loneliness of displacement, and the cruelty of adults who mistake duty for love. Christie's troubles are small to those around her, a worn dress, a cold welcome, the ache of not being wanted, but to a child, they are everything. The novel hurtles toward a crisis that will test whether faith and endurance can redeem a childhood lost to sorrow. For modern readers, this is a window into Victorian girlhood and the silent suffering of children expected to be seen and not heard. It is for anyone who remembers the particular loneliness of feeling like a burden, the desperate need to be loved, and the resilience required to survive the small cruelties of childhood.