The Seamstress of Acadie by Laura Frantz

Publication January 9, 2024-Revel-Chistian, Historical Fiction-416pp

Book Summary

As 1754 is drawing to a close, tensions between the French and the British on Canada’s Acadian shore are reaching a fever pitch. Seamstress Sylvie Galant and her family–French-speaking Acadians wishing to remain neutral–are caught in the middle, their land positioned between two forts flying rival flags. Amid preparations for the celebration of Noël, the talk is of unrest, coming war, and William Blackburn, the British Army Ranger raising havoc across North America’s borderlands.

As summer takes hold in 1755 and British ships appear on the horizon, Sylvie encounters Blackburn, who warns her of the coming invasion. Rather than participate in the forced removal of the Acadians from their land, he resigns his commission. But that cannot save Sylvie or her kin. Relocated on a ramshackle ship to Virginia, Sylvie struggles to pick up the pieces of her life. When her path crosses once more with William’s, they must work through the complex tangle of their shared, shattered past to navigate the present and forge an enduring future.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

A major theme in this accounting of the Acadians in Nova Scotia is “Where is God in the midst of suffering and tragedy?” Declaring themselves neutral between the French and English, the Acadians are forced by the British onto ships bound for Williamsburg, Virginia, or French held Louisiana. Some may remember this event from the famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, read in a literature or history class. The Great Upheaval of 1755, which forced the Acadians from their homeland, is told by Acadian seamstress, Sylvie Galant, and British Major William Blackburn, a character based on real life Robert Rogers. Each action-packed chapter opens with a quote from literary treasures such as Rousseau or Molière, and is filled with anticipation, hatred, trepidation, and relief. Frantz’s novel, fraught with significant details of military strategy and descriptions of beauty and peace, is also laced with compelling metaphors and foreshadowing that keeps readers in suspense. The turning points: the arrival of the English fleet, shipwrecks, and later smallpox and a kidnapping, propel the plot and keep the love story alive; all the while scattered with hope, love, and pink and white apple blossoms.  

My ancestors are Acadians, and I am a seamstress like Sylvie. As she stitched hope into her ball gown, I truly felt the angst and determination of the Acadians as they searched for beauty, peace, and possibilities.

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