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Vintage cover of Shadows on the Rock

Shadows on the Rock

Book Club Resources

Shadows on the Rock (1931) follows apothecary Euclide Auclair and his daughter Cecile living together in 1697 Quebec. Cecile is a precocious and unique girl who feels at home in the foreign port town as she navigates growing up with the eccentric people who travel through it. A new French Colony, Quebec is a busy port town stuck between the Old World politics of Europe and the new frontier of present-day Canada. Quebec is also heavily influenced by the looming presence of the Catholic church and the religious stories that take hold of the people. 

Cather returns to historical fiction with this novel which resembles the frontier life of Father Latour in Death Comes for the Archbishop. This new setting provides an insight into what life was like for the first settlers in the New World and showcases the varying responses to physical and spiritual hardship.

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