About the Book Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Quebec – considered a "saint" by many – at the age of 42 married 12 year old Hélène Boullè. Through Hélène´s eyes we learn of their tense and turbulant marriage with its many upheavals. Considerably older, Champlain, explorer, navigator, cartographer, and historical writer, must adjust to the stormy temperament of his refined Parisian wife. Hélène must adapt to his solitary ways and the crude unforgiving wilderness with its severe winters, lack of food, Iroquois uprisings, and personal violation. Lust, love, betrayal of trusted friends, deception, death, suicide, anger and frustration also weave their threads through the thin blanket of their dysfunctional marriage. Can the marriage of these two truly remarkable people survive?

About the Author

Sandra Bea Harries has a keen interest in Canadian history. She has been researching and writing about Samuel and Hélène de Champlain for thirty years. The descendant of two United Empire Loyalist families who came to Canada from the United States after the American Revolution, she was born in the Loyalist centre of Kingston, Ontario, and grew up in Peterborough. She currently lives in Toronto with her husband and family. This is her first novel.

Not only is Sandra keenly interested in Canadian history, but she is also fascinated with paranormal activity around the world, anthropology, archaeology, genealogy, science, Native legends, and folklore.

Borealis books by Sandra Bea Harries:

Eerie and Eccentric Tales
Madame de Champlain