Where the River Narrows

Where The River Narrows is the translation of "Quebec", from the Mi'kmaq language, and this is the first novel of Canadian writer Aimee Laberge. The novel outlines the history of the province of Quebec through generations of the Tremblay family, beginning in the early days of the settlement through until the 1970s with vignettes of the trials and tribulations of the earliest explorers and their royal patrons. The family story begins with Antonio Tremblay, a courier de bois who leaves his family for months at a time to trap and hunt deeper in the wilds of the country, and also to live with his native wife and family. His daughter, Marie-Reine becomes the matriarch of the extended Tremblay family whose fortunes we follow through the political and social evolution of Quebec, those these are just currents that pass and anyone not familiar with the history of Quebec would miss a number of allusions. Marie-Reine is a redoubtable and very likeable figure. The writing is good, the movements back and forth across time and place are handled well, the characters are well-drawn. I thought it meandered a bit towards the end tracing the lives of the, by now, extended Tremblay family, but this is a good story, well-told and worth reading.