CLARE CLARK
SAVAGE LANDS
It is 1704 and, in the swamps of Louisiana, France is clinging on to its new colony with less than two hundred men. Into this hostile land comes Elisabeth Savaret, one of twenty-three women sent from Paris to marry men they have never met.
With little expectation of happiness, Elisabeth is stunned to find herself falling passionately in love with her husband, infrantryman Jean-Claude Babelon. But Babelon is a dangerous man to love. Witness to Elisabeth's devotion is another of his acolytes, Auguste, a young boy despatched to act as a go-between with the 'redskins'.
When both Elisabeth and Auguste find their love challenged by Babelon's duplicity, the consequences are devastating.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY
‘What a vivid and complete world Clare Clark has created in Savage Lands – an extraordinary feat of imagination, and a sustained feat of recovery. Clare 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
‘Vivid with historical details, characters intense with drama. A story to lose yourself in, satisfying read for lovers of period fiction.’
The Times
‘Clare Clark's story and her history ring absolutely and very sadly true.’
Guardian Review
'Richly and densely textured, serious, intelligent, passionately written, and with more than a hint of gothic...'
Sunday Times
'Clark writes vivid, vigorous prose … a writer of promise'
Literary Review