Marguerite De Roberval: A Romance of the Days of Jacques Cartier

The novel pulses with the restless energy of an age when Europe turned its gaze westward and the New World promised both glory and ruin. Marguerite de Roberval is no passive ornament of the 16th century. She refuses the cramped fate society has carved for her, yearning instead for the freedom of uncharted shores. When Jacques Cartier returns to St. Malo haunted by the lands he has already claimed and the friendships his previous voyages may have destroyed, Marguerite finds herself caught between the ambitions of men who see the Americas as blank slates for empire and her own fierce desire to shape her destiny. Claude de Pontbriand serves as the novel's moral compass, warning of the cost that awaits those who treat indigenous peoples as obstacles. This is adventure fiction with an edge: it asks what happens when the dream of the New World collides with the people who already live there.